海角大神

A daily roundup of terrorism and security issues.

Hong Kong police cleared more barricades from a major city thoroughfare on Tuesday, exerting quiet pressure on pro-democracy protesters whose numbers and spirit appear to be running both high and low.聽

The police, equipped with bolt cutters and electric saws, dismantled the blockades with little confrontation with the demonstrators, largely students, who have been occupying the Queensway road for over two weeks. A police spokesman said that the roads were being cleared聽[paywall] due to worries over 鈥減ublic safety in terms of emergency vehicle access鈥� and to ease the protests' effects on residents of the area, reports the Financial Times.

Protesters are demanding full and free democratic elections for Hong Kong's chief executive without interference by the Communist Party, which insists that candidates must be picked by a committee that protesters say is controlled by the party. The protesters have been peacefully occupying key regions of the former British colonial city in an effort to put pressure on Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to stand down.

The Financial Times writes that the police efforts to clear the roadway without directly confronting the demonstrators are "part of a government strategy to chip away at the protest movement without resorting to tactics that could inflame tensions and spark sympathy for the protesters."

That policy was tested Monday when聽a group of people tried to tear down the barricades resulting in clashes with the protesters. The people claimed to be Chinese whose businesses were being hurt by the protests, reports The Washington Post.

The group eventually dispersed, after protesters held their ground and police kept the two sides apart. The protesters also responded Sunday and Monday in some places by starting to build their own bamboo barricades, according to The New York Times.聽

After police cleared the Queensway road today, one taxi driver told Reuters that the move was a positive one for his business, which has been hurt by the protests. But he said it was not enough.

Regardless of the protests' immediate success though, they highlight a flash point in relations between Hong Kong and the mainland that is not going away, writes 海角大神. Peter Ford writes that many residents of Hong Kong, particularly the young, do not identify with mainland China and the Communist Party.

Kenneth Chan Ka-lok, a former chairman of the pro-democracy Civic party, told 海角大神 that the protests 鈥渉ave punched a big hole in the political landscape, and raised questions about Hong Kong鈥檚 core values that won鈥檛 be wished away.鈥�