Umbrella Movement 10th anniversary: Dozens of police deployed, barricades erected at former protest site
Hong Kong Free Press
Dozens of police officers were deployed near government headquarters on the 10th anniversary of the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement protests on Saturday.
Police – both uniformed and in plainclothes – were seen around the Harcourt Road area of Admiralty, with barricades erected around the site, a decade after officers fired tear gas at demonstrators.
See also: 10 years on, where are the leaders of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement now?
A 79-day street occupation protest ensued in 2014, with mostly young activists camping on main thoroughfares across the city demanding universal suffrage.
In years past, demonstrators had gathered to commemorate the moment tear gas was first fired at 5:58pm on September 28, 2014.
However, only media and police were seen at the site on Saturday, with journalists – including HKFP’s reporter and a team from Korea – having their identification details taken down by officers.
See also: HKFP Lens: Scenes from Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement
Bridges around the area were adorned with Hong Kong and national flags ahead of Tuesday’s National Day celebrations.
HKFP has reached out to the police for comment.
Lone activist says stopped by police
One activist – Lee Ying-chi – told HKFP at a nearby restaurant that police had prevented her from reaching the government complex: “They wouldn’t allow me to get near there, I could not get down, around the Lennon Wall,” she said.
The wall – part of the government complex – was covered in colourful pro-democracy post-it note messages during the citywide civil disobedience campaign.
“It’s the tenth anniversary, and we should all remember that,” Lee added. “That was the first time I smelled tear gas – it was a shock, a shock to all Hongkongers.”
Lee was one of the first people arrested for alleged sedition under Hong Kong’s 2024 homegrown security law. She was reportedly taken away by the police on the 27th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese rule on July 1. And she was was reportedly arrested on suspicion of sedition and disorderly public behaviour on the eve of the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown last June.
The largely-peaceful Umbrella Movement protests followed a weeks-long student sit-in. The campaigns were launched in response to a ruling from Beijing that would have allowed Hongkongers to vote for their chief executive, but only from among candidates vetted by the central government.
Demonstrators’ political demands were not met. Huge protests swept the city almost five years later, resulting in widespread damage and mass arrests and injuries. More than 10,000 arrests were made in 2019 and hundreds were jailed.
In 2020 a Beijing-imposed national security law came into force, prescribing penalties of up to life imprisonment and effectively ending public displays of dissent. Another locally-legislated security law was enacted in 2024.
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