Hong Kong Protests: Tear Gas Fired in Busy Shopping District

HONG KONG — Police officers in Hong Kong on Saturday fired tear gas and clashed with protesters in a central shopping district, capping 21 straight weeks of antigovernment demonstrations that have convulsed this international financial hub and helped to sink it into a recession.

In scenes that have become part of the new normal in Hong Kong, the Causeway Bay shopping district was enveloped in shrouds of tear gas as riot police battled early in the afternoon with protesters, who wore masks in defiance of a ban on face coverings enacted last month.

Several thousand protesters turned out for the rally in Victoria Park, which was billed as a campaign event for Hong Kong’s upcoming district council elections, after the police rejected the organizers’ initial application to hold a demonstration.

Here’s the latest on the Hong Kong protests.

Court Blocks Online Messages That ‘Incite Violence’

• A Hong Kong court on Friday granted a government request to temporarily bar anyone from “disseminating, circulating, publishing or re-publishing” information that “promotes, encourages or incites the use or threat of violence.”

• The order specifically cited Telegram, a messaging app, and LIHKG, a Reddit-like messaging forum. Both are widely used by demonstrators to organize protests.

• The ban came one week after another court barred the public from harassing police officers, including taking their photos while on duty or posting their personal details online.

Beijing Signals Renewed Push for ‘Patriotic Education’

• Chinese Communist Party leaders who met in Beijing during the past week signaled that they were exploring a tougher approach to the unrest in Hong Kong. Mainland officials renewed a call for “patriotic education” in the territory, aimed at fostering greater loyalty to China.

• Shen Chunyao, the head of a central government committee that oversees policy in Hong Kong, also indicated that Beijing might revise how the top official in Hong Kong, called the chief executive, is appointed.

Candidates Seek to Convert Public Anger Into Votes

• The demonstration on Saturday in Victoria Park was an unusual combination of protest and election rally. Candidates for district council carried banners and wore sashes bearing their names; they talked with potential voters as thousands of people dressed in black milled about.

• “There are many ways to struggle and fight back against the government, from inside the institutions and outside the institutions,” said Sam Cheung, 26, a university tutor and district council candidate from the Tuen Mun area in northern Hong Kong.

• The elections, scheduled for Nov. 24, will test the protest movement’s ability to take advantage of its momentum to gain institutional influence. That effort suffered a blow this past week when a government official barred Joshua Wong, a prominent activist, from running in the district council race.

Elaine Yu contributed reporting from Hong Kong, and Christopher Buckley from Beijing.