This archive report was first published on 21 July 2019.
July 21, 2019
Thousands of protesters in Hong Kong defied police orders and occupied major thoroughfares on Sunday, escalating the city's largest-ever demonstrations into the worst political crisis since China reclaimed sovereignty from Britain in 1997.
The demonstration began as a peaceful march emphasizing the protesters' demand for an independent investigation into police brutality in earlier street clashes. However, as the afternoon wore on, crowds swelled, and thousands of demonstrators marched well past where the police had said the official march should end.
By nightfall, protesters had gathered outside the Chinese liaison office and blocked a nearby road with barriers and road signs. Some defaced a crest of the Chinese government on the building's exterior with black ink. The developments on Sunday signaled growing antagonism between the largely peaceful protest movement and the front-line officers patrolling it.
Earlier, police said they had raided an industrial building and seized about two pounds of powerful explosives, 10 gasoline bombs, and nitric acid, as well as bullets, slingshots, knives, and metal rods. The police described the site as a 'homemade laboratory' of triacetone triperoxide, a highly unstable explosive also known as TATP.
Three men in their 20s were arrested in connection with the case. The police and a watchdog that monitors complaints against them have said they plan to investigate the tactics used against protesters at a June 12 demonstration that turned violent.
Supporters of the push for an independent inquiry include members of the city's pro-democracy legislative minority, the Hong Kong Bar Association, and the European Parliament, which issued a statement on Thursday calling for an 'independent and impartial investigation into the use of force by the Hong Kong police against the crowds.'
However, advisers to the territory's embattled chief executive, Carrie Lam, said that her administration did not intend to make further concessions to the protesters. That stance suggests the government is confident it can weather further protests despite signs that the unrest could damage the local economy and the risk that more protests could result in injuries or deaths among demonstrators or police officers.
