China slams 'terrorist-like actions' by Hong Kong protesters
Written by Millennium on August 14, 2019
The government of China has called events at Hong Kong airport on Tuesday “terrorist-like actions” after clashes between police and protesters broke out.
The scuffles broke out after a small group of protesters said they had captured a Chinese ‘spy’ among them and tied up and beat a journalist, who was later identified as working for China’s state-controlled Global Times.
In return, Beijing claimed the “spy” was a citizen of neighbouring Shenzhen city who was merely visiting Hong Kong.
Police responded by making arrests and firing pepper spray at the protesters.
One police officer was captured on video drawing his gun at protesters after they attacked him for trying to detain an unarmed woman, pinning her on the ground.
Other officers were also seen beating the protesters.
“We express the strongest condemnation of these terrorist-like actions,” said Xu Luying, spokeswoman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.
According to Xu, the actions “seriously damage the international image of Hong Kong, and seriously hurt the feelings of a vast number of mainland China compatriots”.
She added that “extremely abominable violent crime must be severely punished according to the law”.
After Tuesday’s late-night scuffle, which left several people injured, most of the protesters and police eventually cleared the terminal.
On Wednesday, operations at the airport were back to normal, according to Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdelhamid, reporting from the airport.
“We’ve seen some of the employees come back to their counters, and some of the stranded passengers trying to figure out when they will be able to catch their flights,” she said.
“It’s not clear whether the protesters will come back tomorrow.”
The unrest at the airport had continued on Tuesday afternoon, as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators returned to the terminal to express their outrage over what they say is increasing police brutality
The renewed protest forced aviation authorities to cancel hundreds of flights for the second day in a row.