Hong Kong (AFP)

Police on Saturday charged pro-democracy protesters who had erected a barricade in eastern Hong Kong, marking the end of a ten-day relative lull in the former British colony.

This semi-autonomous region of southern China has been experiencing its most serious political crisis since June since its retrocession in 1997 with almost daily actions denouncing the decline in freedoms and the growing interference of Beijing.

While the skirmishes have been peaceful for more than a week, the tension has gone up a notch on Saturday in the popular Kwun Tong district of eastern mainland Hong Kong. .

After marching through the neighborhood, thousands of protesters dressed in black and many with gas masks and hard hats were blocked by dozens of riot police, not far from the Ngau Tau Kok police station.

Protesters erected across a street a barricade made of plastic barriers used for traffic and bamboo stems used to make scaffolding in the construction industry.

- "Chinazi" -

Inscriptions "Chinazi" appeared on the concrete walls separating the two tracks of this artery.

And many insults fired ranks of protesters in the direction of the police, the center for weeks of the anger of the protesters, the latter accusing him of violence.

After a few hours of face-to-face meetings, radicals began throwing bottles at law enforcement, or shooting at them with slingshots. The response was not long in coming, the police charging by also firing tear gas canisters, which had not been used for ten days.

Several protesters were arrested, according to an AFP journalist on the spot.

After weeks of essentially peaceful mobilization, demonstrations had escalated in late July and early August in clashes between radicals throwing stones or bricks and the police making massive use of tear gas and bullets. rubber.

There was also the beating, during an action at the airport, two Chinese mainland suspected of being spies in Beijing, which generated on the side of the authorities and in the Chinese official media accusations of terrorism and more and more threats of intervention of China.

Last Sunday, in response, a great peaceful march was organized in the former British colony, gathering 1.7 million people according to its organizers.

"Pacifism will not solve the problem," retorted Saturday one of the protesters calling himself Ryan. "The government does not respond to peaceful protests.

- Never seen" -

The mobilization left in June for the rejection of a Beijing-backed local executive bill to allow extradition to China.

The movement has since broadened considerably its demands, all more or less related to the denunciation of a decline of liberties and a growing interference of China.

Protesters have five fundamental demands, including the complete abandonment of the extradition bill, the resignation of chief executive Carrie Lam, and an investigation into the use of force by the police.

"I have never seen Hong Kong in such a situation," Dee Cheung, a 65-year-old protester on the sidelines of Kwun Tong's face-off, told AFP on Saturday.

"Young people who are outside are putting their future at risk for Hong Kong," he said.

"We do not agree with everything they do, especially with those who charge the police, but we also have to ask why they do that."

For his part, the family of Simon Cheng, the employee of the British consulate who was arrested in China, announced Saturday that he had returned to Hong Kong.

Relations between Beijing and London have been tense since the start of the protest in June, with Beijing accusing London of interference in its internal affairs.

The Chinese government finally acknowledged that the consular employee was being held for 15 days without giving any reasons.

The Chinese press reported that the reason for the arrest was that Mr. Cheng "solicited prostitutes". His family said the charges were "fabricated".

© 2019 AFP