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World

New protests as Hong Kong government mulls face mask ban

Jerome Taylor, Jasmine Leung - Agence France-Presse
New protests as Hong Kong government mulls face mask ban
Pro-democracy demonstrators hold up their hands to symbolise their five demands during a protest against an expected government ban on protesters wearing face masks at Chater Garden in Hong Kong on October 4, 2019. Hong Kong's government was expected to meet October 4 to discuss using a colonial-era emergency law to ban pro-democracy protesters from wearing face masks, in a move opponents said would be a turning point that tips the financial hub into authoritarianism.
AFP / Mohd Rasfan

HONG KONG, China — Hong Kong's government was expected to meet Friday to discuss using a colonial-era emergency law to ban pro-democracy protesters from wearing face masks, a move opponents said would be a turning point that tips the financial hub towards authoritarianism.

Hundreds of masked protesters, mostly office workers, rallied in the city's commercial district ahead of the expected ban while activists have vowed another long weekend of flash-mob protests.

Seething public anger against Chinese rule of the semi-autonomous city has exploded into huge demonstrations and increasingly violent confrontations, with no sign of an end to nearly four months of unrest.

Protesters have used face masks to avoid identification -- along with yellow helmets, goggles and respirators to protect themselves from tear gas and police projectiles.

Local media reported embattled leader Carrie Lam was expected to meet her cabinet on Friday morning to decide whether they should enact the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to ban all face coverings.

If passed, the ban would likely be announced later in the afternoon and come into force at midnight, a government source told the South China Morning Post.

But protesters have vowed to defy the law. 

"Youngsters are risking their lives, they don't mind being jailed for ten years, so wearing masks is not a problem," a 34-year-old officer worker wearing a surgical mask, who gave her first name Mary, told AFP at a protest on Friday afternoon.

The expected ban comes after Hong Kong was rocked by the worst violence on the summer on Tuesday, the same day China celebrated 70 years of Communist Party rule.

Street battles raged for hours between riot police and hardcore protesters while a teenager who was part of a group that attacked police with umbrellas and poles was shot in the chest with a live round -- the first such shooting since the protests began.

Protesters have increasingly resorted to hurling bricks and Molotov cocktails while police are firing tear gas and rubber bullets with unprecedented frequency. 

On Friday the city's subway system said 83 of its 91 underground stations had been vandalised in recent months after protesters turned on the operator because it began shutting down some stations ahead of large protests.

'Watershed moment'

Pro-establishment lawmakers and a prominent police officer association have ramped up their calls for the government to invoke the emergency laws, which were last used 52 years ago by the British during deadly leftist riots. 

The law allows the city's leader to make "any regulations whatsoever" in the event of an emergency or public danger without the need to go via's the city's parliament.

During the 1967 riots -- a period where more than 50 people were killed in a year-long leftist bombing and murder spree -- the British used the ERO to give police extra powers of arrest and rolled out widespread censorship of the press.

Government supporters say emergency powers are needed to combat the increased violence of hardcore protesters.

But critics have countered that bypassing the legislature and giving Lam the power to make any law would be a slippery slope for an international finance hub that owes its economic success to its reputation for rule of law and judicial independence.

"This is a watershed. This is a Rubicon," pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told AFP. "And I'm worried this could be just a starter. More draconian bans in the name of law could be lurking around the corner." 

It is also not clear how a face mask ban would be enforceable. 

Since a deadly SARS outbreak in 2003, face masks have become ubiquitous in Hong Kong.

Even moderate protesters have already shown a willingness to break the law in huge numbers, appearing at unsanctioned rallies in their tens of thousands.

Simon Young, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said a mask ban might deter some moderates from hitting the streets.

"But it could well have the effect of bringing more people out simply because they feel the need to protest against the exercise of executive authority," he told AFP.

CARRIE LAM

FACE MASK

HONG KONG

HONG KONG PROTESTS

As It Happens
LATEST UPDATE: July 20, 2023 - 3:09pm

Millions march in Hong Kong in a powerful rebuke of an extradition law feared to expose them to China's capricious justice system.

July 20, 2023 - 3:09pm

Hong Kong national security police on Thursday detained four people, including the brother of prominent activist Dennis Kwok, one of eight fugitives with bounties on their heads for allegedly breaching national security. 

The city's national security department "took in two men and two women from various districts in Hong Kong and Kowloon for investigation," a police source told AFP. 

Among the four was the elder brother of former democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who is currently in the United States.

"(Kwok's elder brother) is now under investigation in the Western District police station," the source said. 

Three others, "two women and a man", were taken in Tuesday by the national security department, authorities told AFP earlier Thursday.

AFP has requested comment from police on the most recent detentions. — AFP

July 11, 2023 - 4:12pm

Three family members of exiled democracy activist Nathan Law have been taken in for questioning on Tuesday, days after authorities issued a bounty on him and seven others accused of breaching the city's national security law.

Police officers from the national security department brought in Law's parents and elder brother without formally arresting them, a police source confirmed to AFP.

"It's understood that officers from the NSD took three people -- Nathan Law's parents and elder brother -- in for questioning," they said. 

"So far, no arrest has been made." — AFP

July 4, 2023 - 9:54am

The United States condemns Hong Kong authorities for issuing bounties linked to democracy activists based abroad, saying the move sets a dangerous precedent that could threaten human rights.

Hong Kong police offered bounties of HK$1 million (about $127,600) for information leading to the capture of eight prominent dissidents who live abroad and are wanted for national security crimes.

"The United States condemns the Hong Kong Police Force's issuance of an international bounty" against the eight activists, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says in a statement.

"The extraterritorial application of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law is a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world," he adds, saying China is engaging in "transnational repression efforts."

"We call on the Hong Kong government to immediately withdraw this bounty, respect other countries' sovereignty, and stop the international assertion of the National Security Law imposed by Beijing." — AFP

June 5, 2023 - 2:47pm

Hong Kong's top court has quashed the conviction of a journalist in relation to her investigation into an attack on democracy supporters by government loyalists in 2019.

It was a rare victory for the press industry in a city where two major independent news outlets have been forced to shut down since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020.

"Happy -- I could not think of another word that can describe my mood right now," veteran journalist Bao Choy said outside the Court of Final Appeal after the judgement was handed down.

"I think this kind of happiness belongs to everyone in society." — AFP

June 4, 2023 - 5:58pm

Hong Kong police detained Alexandra Wong, a prominent democracy activist better known as "Grandma Wong" on Sunday, the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, AFP reporters said. 

Wong was carrying flowers in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay shopping district, an area that for years was the site of June 4, 1989, commemorations, before authorities escorted her to a police van. AFP reporters saw a total of six people bundled into police vehicles.  — AFP

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