Hong Kong protesters unleash stash of petrol bombs; Chinese soldiers clear roads

Hong Kong people must determine their future. Not China. My inspirations, as a young man, are both Joshua Wong and Jimmy Sham, and it was great pleasure to see Jimmy heading the gay pride march in the city even without police authorisation. This article worries me. No intervention whatsoever. If Hong Kong wants to remain as Chinese, then I'll shut my mouth up and respect that.

Another day, another round of senseless violence perpetrated by these goons.

What will be the excuse this time for those who blindly support these 'protesters?'

The brick hurlers give the peaceful protesters a bad name and should be arrested.

The presence of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers on the streets, even to help clean up

Is a very bad sign.

Protecting freedom from authoritarians often requires unpleasantness. Stay strong Hong Kong!

The army doing clean up volunteering is a public relations coup. Peaceful help, by anyone is appreciated.

I support the locals, the police trying to protect them and any peaceful protestors (if they are any).

Yes but your country is an authoritarian one, and thus, the rights of the people come very low on a list of who matters.

I guess you're after the freedom to burn people alive with gasoline and to hurl bricks at old people.

Literally nobody is supporting those acts. But people will not sit by and be crushed by Beijing. To think otherwise is foolish.

The rest of us will pay taxes so the police can throw these murders into prison and then we'll calmly clean up after your reckless hooliganism.

It will be a happy day when the police and the scoundrels in Beijing are thrown into prison. In the meantime, of course the pro-Beijing shills have the right to defend their regime of brutality. But freedom of speech is a luxury for a chosen few.

There are some police dressed as protesters doing nasty stuff to give the media false images and the people around the world false impressions. The "protesters" were caught entering a police vehicle at the end of their "protesting" shift.

The smarter HK sheep have figured out that it's a bad idea to let Chinese wolves protect them so inevitably there will be blood. This is how history is made. Get over it.

Interesting times. The HK people are very brave and beautiful. Their character is quite different than Japanese.

I never thought I would see this but they are not going down without a fight.

Fires blazed on the doorstep of a Hong Kong university into the early hours of Sunday as protesters hurled petrol bombs and police fired volleys of tear gas in some of the most dramatic scenes in more than five months of escalating violence.

.....Huge fires lit up the night sky at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Kowloon district as protesters hurled scores of petrol bombs, some by catapult,....

.....It had the feel of a fortress, with barricades and black-clad protesters manning the ramparts with improvised weapons like bricks, crates of fire bombs, and bows and arrows at the ready.

.....Earlier clashes on Saturday saw at least one petrol bomb thrown before anti-government protesters at the campuses retreated.

Throwing deadly fire bombs/Molotov cocktails at ANYONE is a invitation for an equally deadly response in return.

Throwing deadly fire bombs/Molotov cocktails at ANYONE is a invitation for an equally deadly response in return.

As the great French director, Jean Renoir, famously put it, “The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.” “The real hell of life is everyone has his reasons.” Hence the increasingly violent response of the Hong Kongers to the state violence and oppression blocking their path to the freedoms to which ALL people have a RIGHT and aspire and which no government has a right to deny for any reason whatsoever.

The army doing clean up volunteering is a public relations coup. Peaceful help, by anyone is appreciated.

I don't think so at all. This is a subtle reminder from the Chinese that "We are already here and we can be deployed anytime".

What would happen to them if even one petrol bomb is thrown at police officers there?

Yes, the bloody history of the United States is testimony to the ruthlessness of the individuals running the American government. In the final year of the West Virginia "Mine War" in 1921 they attempted to bomb rebellious miners from the air. The overwhelming resources of government usually prevail when a people rises up. When not, it's called a revolution and enters the history books, innit?

@u_s__reamer

it's called a revolution and enters the history books

Revolution requires participation of real masses of people. I'm not sure these events in Hong Kong qualifify as a true revolution.

Anyway, my point is that many posters who root here for the rioters in Hong Kong woudn't be so symphatetic and supportive if the same thing (massive disruption of traffic, blockade of airports) happened in their home cities, even under very nice and progressive slogans. And it's very interesting to note that the people who critisize the Chinese authorities for the use of police force are completely silent about the same thing in France (police force against yellowjackets).

Demanding democracy? It's not very likely, is it.

OK, suppose demanding justice. "Black lives matter". As the events in Ferguson demonstarted, riots in the U.S. are suppressed without any hesitation whatever the demands of the rioters. And what happens if a rioteer throws a petrol bomb at police officers in the U.S.?

my point is that many posters who root here for the rioters in Hong Kong woudn't be so symphatetic and supportive if the same thing (massive disruption of traffic, blockade of airports) happened in their home cities

Say what? If I were fighting for the freedom of all my compatriots and our ancestors to follow, I'd be out there with the protestors, much less sympathetic towards them.

What a sad outlook on life - that fighting for freedom just isn't worth the hassles of a few months disruption.

The patience of Chinese authorities is astonishing.

In a Tianenmen Square kind of way? I'm hoping not.

I wonder what would be the reaction of the police in the U.S. if, let's say, crowds of rioters with covered faces block the JFK airport? 

Why are people comparing this to the US, though?

What a sad outlook on life - that fighting for freedom just isn't worth the hassles of a few months disruption

Don't tell me that, I just observe. Tell it to the Honkongers who lived among this "hassles" for several month.

Or tell it to the Ukrainians, who five years ago started the same "fight for freedom", toppled their president, and as a result turned their country into complete nationalistic mess. Revolutions and other street "fights for freedom" are nice only from a safe distance, or if happen in a country you don't like.

And no, I'm not a Chinese government supporter. I just try to be objective.

Why are people comparing this to the US, though?

For objectivity. Why the very same thing (use of police force against street disturbances) is good and lawful in one countries and bad in other? Why if a rioteer attacks a police officer in Hong Kong it is a glorious act of fight for freedom, but if the same thing happens in the U.S. (U.K., France, Germany etc.) it's a crime, attack on Law and Order?

Don't tell me that, I just observe.

As did I. My observation was that the outlook behind yours is a sad outlook on life.

Tell it to the Honkongers who lived among this "hassles" for several month.

My HK friends support the protests fully. This is the freedom of themselves and all of their descendants to come.

For objectivity.

It's irrelevant. The US is not China, and comes with its own set of different problems. It's not like they are a bastion of good behavior by which to contrast. It's like saying 'how can you criticize this gangster, what would you say if that gangster was doing it?'

So let' just keep on topic here. We criticize the US plenty in stories about the US. This one is about HK and China.

yours is a sad outlook on life

May be. It's really sad to see people who do not learn from other's mistakes and gleefuly repeat them.

For objectivity.It's irrelevant

Objectivity is irrelevant to you? I'm not surprised at all.

The US is not China, and comes with its own set of different problems

Thanks for the tip. Sure every country is different, with its own set ot norms and rules. But some basic norms and rules are rather close if not the same in almost all countries. So I really can't understand why people from countries where any attack on police officers is a major crime pinishable by a long sentence or even instant death hail attacks on Honk Kong police. "We fight for freedom" excuse put Hong Kong rioters above the law?

Rioters should not be above the law, but neither should the police. And one could argue that hk's desperation to hold onto law and order has certainly done just that.

And you are the judge who decides what deserves the respect and what doesn't

In this case, yeah. The CCP is a dictatorship. Therefore their laws don’t deserve respect. Why should laws written to control the people without any possible intervention by the people be respected? Only those supporting dictatorships would think that.