Extremist groups operating in Hong Kong are preparing for their biggest action against legislation that criminalises their ties with Western countries.
On Wednesday, May 26, radicals plan to reach the Legislative Council building in the heart of Hong Kong. Against the background of how parliamentarians will consider the bill on national security, the streets are planned to turn into a field of fierce confrontation.
The pro-Western political formation “Confederation of Trade Unions of Hong Kong”, which includes about 145 thousand people, has already called for a mass riot. Moreover, the organizers of the protests involved schoolchildren in their anti-government campaign, on behalf of whom an open appeal to “strike a blow” has been spread.
According to the local media, the Hong Kong police intend to take 3.5 thousand Special Forces fighters out into the streets of the city, and barriers have already been erected outside the parliament building, offices of the central government and garrison of the People’s Liberation Army of China.
The anti-government protests in Hong Kong
In June 2019, mass actions began in Hong Kong, with pogroms and clashes with police. The official reason for the protests was an extradition bill. If passed, Hong Kong could detain and extradite to Beijing those wanted by Chinese security agencies.
The demonstrators were openly supported by Western countries, particularly the US and the UK. The protests themselves continued even after the authorities refused to pass the law. The most absurd reasons were invented to hold the protests. For example, at the end of August last year, radicals smashed underground stations ostensibly because of poor quality of service, and also demolished “smart” lampposts collecting information about road traffic and air pollution levels. The fact is that the protesters saw them as a system of total surveillance by the authorities.
Actions in Hong Kong stopped amid a coronavirus pandemic and resumed in late April. A series of actions took place on 1 May, and ten days later riots with barricades and arson erupted in Hong Kong. Against this backdrop, the Chinese government decided to introduce a national security law in Hong Kong.
The document, among other things, criminalizes foreign interference and the undermining of state power in this administrative region of China. Thus, it complicates anti-government activities here and the U.S. State Department has already demanded from Beijing not to prevent Washington from interfering in Hong Kong affairs.
On Sunday, riots broke out again in the city. The brutality of the radicals forced the security forces to disperse those using water cannons and tear gas. More than 180 especially violent lawbreakers were detained, and one of the key American stake-holders in Hong Kong tellingly appealed to the U.S. to legally protect extremists acting for the interests of Washington.