Pro-Democracy Protests Shake Hong Kong
Roads Were Blocked and Some Schools and Offices Were Closed Monday Morning

September 29, 2014
The Wall Street Journal
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Police used pepper spray and tear gas to disperse pro-democracy protesters in the city's most serious confrontation with Beijing in more than a decade.
Roads were blocked and some schools and offices were closed Monday morning as protests spread to other neighborhoods in the city. Police stopped using tear gas late in the night and tried negotiating with protesters but crowds remained in several locations. 
The protests showed signs of affecting Hong Kong's financial industry as http://online.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-banks-hit-by-protests-1411952990 \t _blank banks closed branches in the affected areas and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city's de facto central bank, activated its own contingency plan and was ready to inject liquidity into the banking system. Markets opened as normal with the http://online.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-shares-open-sharply-lower-1411955595 \t _blank Hang Seng Index falling1.3% at the start of trading.
The Hong Kong government said Monday morning that riot police were withdrawn after peace was restored among protesters. 
The escalation of the protests—centered on Beijing's decision to impose limits on how Hong Kong elects its leader—threatens to strain relations with Beijing which controls Hong Kong under an arrangement called one country, two systems. Beijing has taken a hard line over the brewing dispute over democracy in Hong Kong, issuing warnings to protest organizers and pushing business leaders to support its stance, allowing universal suffrage but only allowing people to vote for preapproved candidates.
The protests were largely driven by university students who boycotted classes last week and stepped up their confrontation with authorities over the weekend. It has exposed a deep http://online.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-protests-expose-generational-economic-divide-1411921313 \t _blank generational and economic divide in the city, and is poised to shape its relationship with mainland China for years to come.
The protests put Hong Kong's government, which supports Beijing's election plan, in a difficult position between its disgruntled citizens and China. In a news conference yesterday, the city's leaders called the protests illegal. A few hours later, police began using tear gas.
The protests appeared to invigorate pro-democracy activists, especially as supporters poured into the area throughout the weekend, culminating in the confrontations during the night.
But it was unclear whether the organizers could build on the momentum. Activists have a good record of pushing back against Beijing, including two years ago when student protesters defeated a plan to use a Beijing approved patriotic curriculum in schools. But they haven't succeeded on an issue as high-profile as this one. Just a few weeks ago, the pro-democracy movement had appeared to fizzle in the face of staunch opposition from Beijing, the city's government and from many local business people.
On Sunday, an effort by police to keep protesters away from government buildings appeared to backfire. As police converged on the scene and protesters spread out from its center, the http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/09/28/for-hong-kong-retailers-protests-another-blow/ \t _blank conflict spread across three of Hong Kong's most important commercial neighborhoods.
When police started lobbing tear gas at the crowd, protesters dispersed but quickly regrouped and retook some ground. They ignored police signs telling them to leave and used metal barricades to prevent officers from moving them away.
At one point, a group of police cars was surrounded by a sea of protesters.
Hong Kong police, you have been surrounded, please leave, protesters shouted over a sound system. Police showed red signs urging the activists to stop charging or force would be used.
After being sprayed with tear gas, 21-year-old Lee Wing, a media student at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, ran with other protesters to a park on the waterfront.
We expected pepper spray at most, she said. Our protective gear is for that.
A total of 26 people involved with the protests were sent to nearby hospitals for treatment Sunday, according to the government. Police said 78 people had been arrested in the protests.
Early Monday morning, thousands of protesters were still spread through downtown Hong Kong, and there appeared to be spontaneous gatherings also in the Causeway Bay shopping district and across Victoria Harbour in parts of Kowloon. Police fired rounds of tear gas into the late-night hours to try to contain the crowds.
The protests threaten to weaken Hong Kong's economy, which has suffered as China has slowed. This week is a holiday in China and one of the big shopping weeks in Hong Kong and the protests threatened to keep tourists away. 
On Monday morning, 17 banks, including http://quotes.wsj.com/UK/HSBA \t _blank HSBC Holdings http://quotes.wsj.com/UK/HSBA \t _blank HSBA.LN -1.89% PLC and Standard Chartered Bank PLC, had closed 29 branches or offices across the city. Police blocked major roads into the city's central business districts forcing workers to walk to their offices.
http://quotes.wsj.com/BLK \t _blank BlackRock Inc., http://quotes.wsj.com/BLK \t _blank BLK +4.21% the world's largest money manager, told any nonessential Hong Kong employees to work from home today, according to people familiar with the firm. BlackRock, along with http://quotes.wsj.com/GS \t _blank Goldman Sachs http://quotes.wsj.com/GS \t _blank GS +0.56%and other financial firms, is located in Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Center office tower, in the midst of a main protest area.
Accounting firm KPMG, located in nearby Causeway Bay and Central neighborhoods, told all employees to work from home Monday.
The Hong Kong dollar, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar and trades in a narrow band, fell to a six-month low on Monday.
Students have led the push for democracy in Hong Kong all summer, tapping into their generation's frustration over soaring housing costs, an economy dominated by large conglomerates and competition from mainland Chinese for services such as education and health care.
The city's younger generation hasn't benefited from China's economic rise to the same extent as older residents, many of who cashed in as factory owners and real-estate investors, and who now oppose disrupting the city to fight over political issues.
University students boycotted classes and held rallies culminating in a confrontation with police Friday night when students climbed a fence at the government complex. Police arrested dozens of students and used pepper spray to push back the crowd.
The televised clashes between students and police prompted large crowds to come out to support the students.
The protesters are demanding that the government rescind a plan for elections for Hong Kong's chief executive, which will allow residents to vote but only for candidates approved by a committee of 1,200 largely pro-Beijing members. The committee currently selects Hong Kong's top official without a popular vote.
Early Sunday morning, leaders of the city's best-known pro-democracy group, Occupy Central, joined students at the city's government headquarters. Occupy Central has vowed to disrupt the city's central business district, and both groups share a desire for more democracy. But the appearance of the Occupy leaders, who are mostly middle-aged university professors and veteran members of the city's democratic parties, stood in contrast to the students who had been camped out at the site for two days.
The deployment of riot police is extremely rare in Hong Kong, known for its largely peaceful and orderly protests.
The last time local police fired tear gas against protesters was during the World Trade Organization summit held in the city in December 2005. Few locals were among the protesters, many of whom were South Korean farmers who attacked police with bamboo poles and tried to break into a meeting of trade ministers from around the world. Other examples that involved riot police in recent years were mainly scuffles at prisons and refugee camps.
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying urged people not to join the protests, which he termed illegal.
China struck an uncompromising position in response to the protests. A spokesman for the government's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office called the protests illegal and said Beijing supported the preservation of order.

The central government firmly opposes any illegal activities that damage the rule of law and social tranquility, the unnamed spokesman said in remarks carried by the government's Xinhua News Agency. Beijing, the spokesman said, is confident that the Hong Kong government would maintain the territory's stability and protect the safety of people and property.
The spokesman said the decision on how Hong Kong's chief executive should be elected has a legal status and validity that can't be shaken and is based on a full hearing of the views of Hong Kong society on different levels.
Actions and class boycotts by students over the past week had largely seized the initiative from Occupy Central, which in recent months had been the main organizer of anti-Beijing protests.
While Occupy Central hadn't been able http://online.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-protest-group-faces-moment-of-truth-1410514068 \t _blank to win broad support and had been heavily criticized by the city's powerful business community, the police use of pepper spray and tear gas against student protesters appeared to touch a nerve with many Hong Kong residents.
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, Occupy Central organizers said they had http://online.wsj.com/articles/occupy-central-launches-hong-kong-protest-campaign-1411848966 \t _blank moved forward their broad civil-disobedience campaign.
We want to support the students who have been holding up here for quite a while, said Occupy Central organizer Benny Tai on Sunday.
Joshua Wong, a 17-year-old leader of student activist group Scholarism who was among those arrested Friday, was http://online.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-student-leader-released-unconditionally-1411912036 \t _blank released on Sunday, according to his legal team. Images of him being carried off with a police officer holding his glasses had been splashed across the city's newspapers.
Two years ago, when Mr. Wong was a high-school student, the group beat back a planned change to Hong Kong's school curriculum that would have classes to promote Chinese patriotism in local schools.
The protests come at the start of an important holiday week in China, when Hong Kong traditionally sees thousands of mainland tourists cross the border for shopping sprees. If the tourists are scared away, it could be a big blow to Hong Kong's already sluggish economy.