In the evening of Sunday, July 14, in Hong Kong, there were violent clashes between police and demonstrators who were taking part in a mass rally to protest for the fifth week in a row against the Beijing-backed local government. .

The police used pepper spray and batons on several occasions during the day against small groups of protestors who responded by throwing bottles and other objects.

Numerous questions

The most violent clashes occurred in the evening inside a shopping center housing many luxury clothing stores, where hundreds of protesters had taken refuge after a police charge.

The police entered the complex and were caught in projectiles from the upper levels. One of them lay unconscious and there was blood on the floor.

They then went upstairs, protected by their shields and armed with batons, and proceeded to a very large number of arrests. A protester who collapsed in the crush received on-site care. By 22:00 (local time), most of the protesters had left the site.

"We are not dead yet"

Earlier in the day, other clashes had already occurred. Handfuls of protesters had dug into a street near where tens of thousands of people had gathered to protest against the authorities in the Sha Tin neighborhood.

For more than a month, Hong Kong is shaken by a huge wave of protest, part of the rejection of a bill, now suspended, to allow extradition to China.

But the movement then put forward broader demands for the preservation of democratic gains, including freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary. An independence that theoretically enjoyed until 2047 this territory retroceded in 1997 by London to China, and to which was granted a status of semi-autonomy.

"We have demonstrated so many times, but the government still does not listen, it forces everyone to go out on the streets," said Tony Wong, a 24-year-old protester.

Like him, many consider the demonstrations as an existential fight against Beijing's growing control over the territory.

"It's a dangerous moment," said JoJo So, in her fifties. "Hong Kongers can choose to die or live, we are on the edge of the razor but we are not dead yet."

With AFP