Chinese official urged Hong Kong villagers to drive off protesters before violence at train station

When some protesters retaliated, the beatings escalated as men and women were hit repeatedly on their heads and bodies by the masked men, who wore white shirts. (Shutterstock)
Updated 26 July 2019
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Chinese official urged Hong Kong villagers to drive off protesters before violence at train station

  • Assailants gathered hours before brazen attacks on Sunday
  • Police took several hours to respond to calls for help — victims

HONG KONG: A week before suspected triad gang members attacked protesters and commuters at a rural Hong Kong train station last Sunday, an official from China’s representative office urged local residents to drive away any activists.

Li Jiyi, the director of the Central Government Liaison’s local district office made the appeal at a community banquet for hundreds of villagers in Hong Kong’s rural New Territories.

In a previously unreported recording from the July 11 event obtained by Reuters, Li addresses the large crowd about the escalating protests that have plunged Hong Kong into its worst political crisis since it returned to Chinese from British rule in 1997.

Li chastises the protesters, appealing to the assembled residents to protect their towns in Yuen Long district and to chase anti-government activists away.

“We won’t allow them to come to Yuen Long to cause trouble,” he said, to a burst of applause.

“Even though there are a group of protesters trained to throw bricks and iron bars, we still have a group of Yuen Long residents with the persistence and courage to maintain social peace and protect our home.”

Repeatedly, Li spoke of the need for harmony and unity between the traditional villages and the government, “especially when there is wind and rain in Hong Kong.”

The banquet was attended by a Hong Kong government district officer, Enoch Yuen, and many of the city’s rural leaders. Yuen gave no immediate response to Reuters’ questions on Li’s speech and its impact on village representatives.

Last Sunday, after anti-government protesters marched in central Hong Kong and defaced China’s Liaison Office, over 100 men swarmed through Yuen Long train station, attacking black-clad protesters, passers-by, journalists and a lawmaker with pipes, clubs and lampstands.

When some protesters retaliated, the beatings escalated as men and women were hit repeatedly on their heads and bodies by the masked men, who wore white shirts.

Video footage showed victims fleeing the mayhem amid screams, and floors of the train station streaked with blood. Forty-five people were injured, one critically.

China’s Liaison Office did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about Li’s speech, and Li could not be reached for comment.

Johnny Mak, a veteran Democratic Alliance district councillor in Yuen Long who witnessed the train station bloodshed, said he believed Li’s remarks had been an explicit call to arms against protesters.

“If he didn’t say this, the violence wouldn’t have happened, and the triads wouldn’t have beaten people,” he told Reuters in his office close to the station.

Ching Chan-ming, the head of the Shap Pat Heung rural committee which hosted the banquet that night, said he thought Li’s speech was positive and held no malicious intent.

“How could he (Li) make such an appeal like that?,” Ching told Reuters. “I don’t think it was a mobilization call. His main message is that he hopes Hong Kong can remain stable and prosperous.”

TRIADS

The protesters are demanding Hong Kong’s leader scrap a controversial extradition law that many fear will extend China’s reach into the city.

The government’s refusal to do so — it has agreed only to suspend the bill so far — have led to two months of sometimes violent demonstrations across the city.

Beyond the extradition bill, many activists are demanding independent inquiries into the use of police force against them, and far-reaching democratic reforms — anathema to Beijing’s leaders.

China’s Foreign Ministry Office in Hong Kong said earlier this week that “the recent extreme and violent acts in Hong Kong have seriously undermined the foundation of the rule of law ... and trampled on the red line of “One Country, Two Systems” which underpins Beijing’s control of Hong Kong.

Two senior police sources told Reuters some of the men who attacked the protesters had triad backgrounds including from the powerful Wo Shing Wo, Hong Kong’s oldest triad society, and the 14K, another large, well-known triad.

Police spokespeople didn’t respond to Reuters questions about triad involvement or any aspect of their operation that night.

While Hong Kong’s triads — ancient secret societies that morphed into mafia-style underworld operations — no longer hold the high profile of previous decades they remain entrenched in some grittier districts and in rural areas, according to police.

Police told reporters in 2014 during the so-called “Occupy” democracy protests, that hundreds of triad members were suspected of mounting operations to infiltrate, beat and harass those in the movement. Several dozen people were arrested at the time.

NO POLICE IN SIGHT

Within hours of Sunday’s violence, police bosses battled criticism they had failed to protect the public given delays getting to the scene.
Police commissioner Stephen Lo said there had been a need to “redeploy manpower from other districts.”

Democratic Party district councillor Zachary Wong said Li’s message was having an impact in the days leading up to Sunday’s violence and he had received repeated calls from associates a day earlier saying something was brewing.

Wong said he called local police on Saturday, and then again on Sunday at 7pm when he heard of men gathering in a Yuen Long park.
“Some people called me and said, ‘We’re really scared, please do something,” Wong told Reuters.

Both Mak and Wong said they were told by police they were aware of the situation and were handling it.

During this time, pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho was filmed laughing and shaking hands with some of the men in white shirts near the park.
Giving them the ‘thumbs up’ sign, he said: “You are my heroes.” The men laughed and cheered in response.

Ho later told reporters he had no knowledge of or involvement in the violence, but was merely reaching out to his constituents.
Ho was not immediately available at his office and could not be reached on his mobile phone.

Several hours later, when the most violent assaults took place at the train station, there were still no police present to prevent the bloodshed.
“It doesn’t make sense that for many hours, there wasn’t a single police car in sight,” said Mak.

Two senior police officers involved in controlling demonstrations and a senior government security official told Reuters privately they were incensed at public perceptions the police somehow acted in concert with triads at Yuen Long.

After the attacks in Yuen Long train station, some of the assailants fled to the traditional walled village of Nam Pin Wai nearby.

There, riot police and other officers surrounded and questioned scores of men in white shirts for several hours, live media coverage showed.

Sometime after 4 a.m., the men in white began to leave. No arrests were made at the time, although a dozen men have since been arrested over the incident, according to a police statement.

A police commander told reporters at the scene that no arrests were made as the police couldn’t prove the men were the assailants, and no weapons were found.

Public anger over the incident has built in the days since, and tens of thousands of people are expected to march through Yuen Long on Saturday.

A rare open letter signed by a group of civil servants criticized authorities’ handling of the violence. “The police’s lack of response on July 21 had made people suspect the government colluded with triads,” wrote a group of 235 civil servants from 44 government departments including the police force.

“This had not only caused citizens to lose confidence in the police, but also made civil servants suspect that the government departments are not aimed to serve citizens faithfully.”

At a press conference, Police Commissioner Lo denied any collusion between his force and triads but acknowledged the need to restore public confidence.


UN denounces army attacks in Myanmar despite post-quake truce

Updated 4 sec ago
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UN denounces army attacks in Myanmar despite post-quake truce

  • Following reports of sporadic clashes even after the March 28 quake that so far is known to have killed at least 3,645 people
  • The military air strikes on Pazi Gyi village on April 11 2023 killed at least 155 people, including many children
GENEVA: The United Nations rights office decried Friday attacks by Myanmar’s military despite a ceasefire declared following last month’s devastating earthquake, which killed more than 3,600 people.
“At a moment when the sole focus should be on ensuring humanitarian aid gets to disaster zones, the military is instead launching attacks,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.
UN rights chief Volker Turk, she said, “calls on the military to remove any and all obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to cease military operations.”
A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Following reports of sporadic clashes even after the March 28 quake that so far is known to have killed at least 3,645 people, the junta joined its opponents last week in calling a temporary halt to hostilities for relief to be delivered.
But Shamdasani highlighted that since the earthquake, “military forces have reportedly carried out over 120 attacks.”
“More than half of them (were) after their declared ceasefire was due to have gone into effect on 2 April,” she said.
The UN rights office had determined that most of these involved aerial and artillery strikes, she said, “including in areas impacted by the earthquake.”
“Numerous strikes have been reported in populated areas, many of them appearing to amount to indiscriminate attacks and to breach the principle of proportionality in international humanitarian law.”
Shamdasani pointed out that areas at the epicenter of the quake in Sagaing, particularly those controlled by opponents of the military, “have had to rely on local community responses for search and rescue, and to meet basic needs.”
“Clearly these valiant efforts need to be further supported,” she said, calling for “common efforts to assist those in greatest need.”
“In this spirit we call on the military to announce a full amnesty for detainees it has incarcerated since February 2021, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint.”
The UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) also decried the attacks.
“Even as rescue workers searched for survivors during the devastating earthquake last month, the military continued its air attacks in Mandalay, Sagaing and other regions, killing and injuring civilians,” it said in a statement.
Nicholas Koumjian, head of the investigative team, slammed “the systematic and escalating use of air strikes by the Myanmar military across the country,” which “caused widespread death, destruction and displacement, and has terrorized communities.”
He said Friday marked the two-year anniversary of military strikes in the now quake-hit Sagaing region, which constituted the deadliest single attack in Myanmar since the coup.
The military air strikes on Pazi Gyi village on April 11 2023 killed at least 155 people, including many children.
“Aerial bombardments, including the use of drones and alleged use of chemical weapons, are a grim hallmark of the Myanmar conflict and have increased in frequency since the Pazi Gyi attack,” the IIMM statement said.

Ousted South Korean President Yoon embraces supporters after leaving presidential residence

Updated 19 min 30 sec ago
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Ousted South Korean President Yoon embraces supporters after leaving presidential residence

  • Constitutional Court removed him from office over his ill-fated imposition of martial law in December
  • Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, returned to their private apartment in affluent southern Seoul

SEOUL: Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol left the presidential residence in Seoul on Friday for his private home, a week after the Constitutional Court removed him from office over his ill-fated imposition of martial law in December.
In recent days, moving trucks were seen driving in and out of the walled presidential compound in the Hannam-dong district, the site of a massive law enforcement operation in January that led to Yoon’s detainment. Yoon, who is facing a criminal trial on rebellion charges, was released from custody in March after a Seoul court canceled his arrest.
Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, along with their 11 dogs and cats, returned to their private apartment in affluent southern Seoul. As his black van arrived at the gate of the presidential compound, Yoon stepped out, smiling and waving to his supporters, shaking hands and embracing dozens of them, before getting back into the vehicle and leaving the site.
Arriving at the apartment complex where his private residence is located, Yoon stepped out of the van again and walked slowly through a crowd of supporters, shaking their hands as they chanted his name, as his wife closely followed.
Dozens of both supporters and critics of Yoon rallied in nearby streets amid a heavy police presence, holding signs that ran from “Your excellency Yoon, we will carry on with your spirit” to “Give Yoon Suk Yeol the death penalty!”
In a separate public message, Yoon expressed gratitude to his supporters who had protested for months calling for his reinstatement, and stressed that he will “continue to do my utmost” to build the “free and prosperous Republic of Korea that we have dreamed of together,” invoking South Korea’s formal name.
Yoon, a conservative who narrowly won the 2022 election, declared martial law on late-night television on Dec. 3, vowing to eradicate “anti-state” liberals whom he accused of abusing their legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. Yoon also declared a suspension of legislative activities and sent hundreds of troops to surround the National Assembly, but lawmakers still managed to form a quorum and voted to lift martial law just hours after it was imposed.
Yoon’s powers were suspended after the Assembly impeached him on Dec. 14. The Constitutional Court upheld impeachment and formally removed him from office last week, triggering a presidential election the government set for June 3.
Despite his self-inflicted downfall, it’s unlikely that Yoon will fade into the background, experts say. With the country entering election mode, he may try to rally his supporters while seeking to tighten his grip on the conservative People Power Party, whose leadership is stacked with loyalists.
Facing a separate criminal trial on rebellion charges, which are punishable by death or life in prison, Yoon would strongly prefer a conservative president who could pardon him if convicted and is likely to push to ensure the party’s primaries are won by a candidate he supports, experts say.


China hits back at Trump tariff hike, turmoil rings recession alarm

Updated 25 min 51 sec ago
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China hits back at Trump tariff hike, turmoil rings recession alarm

  • Donald Trump has now imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods of 145 percent since taking office
  • Beijing indicated that this would be the last time it matched the US tariff hike

BEIJING/WARSAW/WASHINGTON: Beijing on Friday increased its tariffs on US imports to 125 percent, hitting back against US President Donald Trump’s decision to hike duties on Chinese goods to 145 percent and raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to up-end global supply chains.
China’s retaliation intensified the economic turmoil unleashed by Trump’s tariffs, with markets tumbling further and foreign leaders puzzling how to respond to the biggest disruption to the world trade order in decades.
The brief reprieve for battered stocks seen after Trump decided to pause duties for dozens of countries for 90 days quickly dissipated, as attention returned to the escalating trade conflict between the US and China that has fueled global recession fears.
Global stocks fell, the dollar slid and a sell-off in US government bonds picked up pace on Friday, reigniting fears of fragility in the world’s biggest bond market. Gold, a safe haven for investors in times of crisis, scaled a record high.
“Recession risk is much, much higher now than it was a couple weeks ago,” said Adam Hetts, global head of multi-asset at Janus Henderson.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shrugged off the renewed market turmoil on Thursday and said striking deals with other countries would bring certainty.
The US and Vietnam have agreed to begin formal trade talks, the White House said. The Southeast Asian manufacturing hub is prepared to crack down on Chinese goods being shipped to the United States via its territory in the hope of avoiding tariffs, Reuters exclusively reported.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, meanwhile, has set up a trade task force that hopes to visit Washington next week.
Trade war with China
As Trump suddenly paused his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on other countries hours after they came into effect earlier this week, he ratcheted up duties on Chinese imports as punishment for Beijing’s initial move to retaliate.
He has now imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods of 145 percent since taking office.
China hit back with new tariffs on Friday, although Beijing indicated that this would be the last time it matched the US, should Trump take his duties any higher.
“Even if the US continues to impose even higher tariffs, it would no longer have any economic significance and would go down as a joke in the history of world economics,” the finance ministry statement added.
“If the US continues to play a numbers game with tariffs, China will not respond,” it added, however, leaving the door open for Beijing to turn to other types of retaliation, and reiterating that China would fight the US to the end.
Trump had told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he thought the United States could make a deal with China and said he respected Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“In a true sense he’s been a friend of mine for a long period of time, and I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries,” he said.
Xi, in his first public remarks on Trump’s tariffs, told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during a meeting in Beijing on Friday that China and the European Union should “jointly oppose unilateral acts of bullying,” in a clear swipe at Trump’s tariff policies.
“There are no winners in a trade war,” the Chinese leader told his guest, adding that by acting together, the world’s second-largest economy and the 27-strong European trade bloc could defend their interests and help uphold “the global rules-based order,” China’s state news agency Xinhua reported.


Taliban publicly execute a third person for murder: Afghan Supreme Court

Updated 11 April 2025
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Taliban publicly execute a third person for murder: Afghan Supreme Court

  • Afghanistan’s Supreme Court said Taliban authorities executed three convicted murderers on Friday, bringing to nine the number of men publicly put to death since their return to power

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Supreme Court said Taliban authorities executed three convicted murderers on Friday, bringing to nine the number of men publicly put to death since their return to power, according to an AFP tally.
Two men were executed in front of spectators in Qala I Naw, the center of Badghis province, while a third was killed in Zaranj in Nimroz province, the Supreme Court said in a statement.


Court to rule on Danish arms sales to Israel case

Updated 11 April 2025
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Court to rule on Danish arms sales to Israel case

  • Danish media outlets Danwatch and Information revealed in 2023 that Israel’s F-35s were equipped with parts made by the Danish group Terma

COPENHAGEN: A Copenhagen court is to rule Friday whether a lawsuit filed by four humanitarian organizations accusing Denmark of violating international law by exporting weapons to Israel is admissible in court.
The Palestinian human rights association Al-Haq, Amnesty International, Oxfam and Action Aid Denmark filed the lawsuit against the Danish foreign ministry and national police last year.
They said in a statement there was a risk that “Danish military materiel was being used to commit serious crimes against civilians in Gaza.”
The associations targeted the foreign ministry in their lawsuit since it “determines whether there is a risk that weapons and weapons components could be used to violate human rights” and the police because it was the authority responsible for issuing export licenses.
Denmark’s Eastern High Court is expected to announce its decision around 10:00 am (0800 GMT).
“We are the biggest human rights organization in the world and our mandate is clearly to protect human rights,” the secretary general of the Danish branch of Amnesty International, Vibe Klarup, said in a statement.
Danish media outlets Danwatch and Information revealed in 2023 that Israel’s F-35s were equipped with parts made by the Danish group Terma.
“Amnesty International has been working for several years to rally support for the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to ensure that states’ arms trading is not used to commit human rights violations,” said Klarup.
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen argued in October that Denmark’s participation in the F-35 program was “crucial for our security and our relations with our main allies.”
Last year, Amnesty International accused Israel of “committing genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.
The Danish lawsuit was filed in March 2024, on the heels of a similar suit filed in the Netherlands by a coalition of humanitarian organizations.
A Dutch court in December rejected demands by pro-Palestinian groups for a total ban on exporting goods that can be used for military means to Israel.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the overall death toll has reached 50,846 since the war with Israel began on October 7, 2023, a figure the UN has deemed reliable.
Hamas’ unprecedented assault on Israel resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.