Thousands of people celebrated the start of 2019 yesterday by taking to the streets at the annual New Year’s Day rally, amid claims by pro-independence activists that they had been harassed in the lead-up to the march.
According to event organizers the Civil Human Rights Front, about 5,500 people turned up at the rally, while police estimated about 3,200 people took part. Ming Pao reports that both estimates represented roughly half of last year’s figures for the same rally.
The rally saw protestors condemn government proposals to build an artificial island off the coast of Lantau Island, and call for the resignations of Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her justice chief, Teresa Cheng, who was under fire last week after her department dropped an investigation into the business dealings of former chief executive CY Leung, the SCMP reports.
The procession began at East Point Road in Causeway Bay at 3pm, and ended outside the Central Government Offices, known as Civic Square, in Admiralty a few hours later.
About 30 pro-independence activists also joined the protest, and ended the rally opposite Admiralty Centre near Civic Square, after the government reminded people in the morning that banners and placards advocating independence would not be allowed inside the area outside the government offices.
That compromise didn’t last however, with a minor scuffle erupting inside Civic Square when a group of 10 pro-independence activists made their way in. One man in the group held a placard that read: “Only with two countries will there be two systems.”
Security guards tried to keep the group out, but they eventually forced their way in.
The government said in a statement published last night that two security guards fell to the ground during the incident, and reiterated its zero tolerance policy on people carrying pro-independence banners into the enclosure.
Earlier in the day, Baggio Leung, a spokesman for the Hong Kong National Front, said that the pro-independence group’s office in Tsuen Wan had been broken into on New Year’s Eve.
Leung, who was one of the six lawmakers ousted from the city’s legislature for improper oath-taking, told reporters at the start of the rally that no valuables were taken, but some pro-independence flags and placards were missing, and the storage room had been ransacked.
Leung also told reporters that some pro-independence activists had even been followed and threatened by mysterious masked men earlier in the day.
There were also some minor scuffles along the way between pro-democracy protestors and smaller pro-Beijing groups.
One of the pro-Beijing protesters, holding up a banner that read “I Love China” and who gave his name as Ngai Zi-long, told Coconuts HK: “People who support Hong Kong independence are inhuman,” adding that “without the Communist Party, there will be no good days today. Supporting Hong Kong independence is ungrateful and treacherous.”
At the end of the rally, Jimmy Sham, leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, attributed the low turnout to declining social activism in Hong Kong and tougher policing and interference from pro-Beijing groups.
“When the government continues to undermine our rule of law and constantly hurts our social morality, we must tell the world that justice is on our side,” he said in a speech to fellow protesters outside Civic Square.
