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By Donny Kwok
HONG KONG, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Hong Kong anti-government
protesters marched through several shopping malls chanting
pro-democracy slogans on Wednesday, a day after violent clashes
with the police left a prime tourist district decorated for
Christmas shrouded in tear gas.
The protests, which escalated in June, have been largely
peaceful for much of December after pro-democracy candidates
overwhelmingly won district council elections the month before.
But Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leaders have made no concessions
to the protesters, despite acknowledging their defeat in the
polls, and the rallies have turned more confrontational over the
festive period.
Riot police patrolled several past protest hotspots while
tourists and shoppers, many wearing Santa hats or reindeer
antlers, strolled past.
Television footage showed police pepper-spraying a man they
then arrested outside a shopping centre in the densely-populated
district of Mong Kok.
Hundreds of protesters, dressed in black and wearing face
masks, descended on shopping malls around the Chinese-ruled
city, mixing with shoppers and shouting popular slogans such as
"Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our times!"
Most shops remained open.
On Tuesday, baton-wielding police had fired tear gas at
thousands of protesters who barricaded roads, spray-painted
slogans on buildings and trashed a Starbucks cafe and an HSBC
branch. A water cannon truck, flanked by armoured jeeps also
roamed the streets, but was not heavily used.
INJURIES
The Hospital Authority said 25 people had been injured
overnight, including one man who fell from the second to first
floor of a shopping mall as he tried to escape the police, and
another who fell from the rooftop of a restaurant. It was
unclear if the latter was related to the protests.
HSBC has become embroiled in a controversy
involving a police crackdown earlier this month on a
fund-raising platform supporting protesters. HSBC denied any
link between the crackdown and its earlier closure of a bank
account tied to the group, but remains the target of protester
rage.
Starbucks has also become a target of the demonstrators'
anger after the daughter of the founder of Maxim's Caterers,
which owns the local franchise, publicly condemned the
protesters.
The protests started more than six months ago against a
now-withdrawn bill which would have allowed extraditions to
mainland China where courts are controlled by the Communist
Party.
They have since evolved into a broader pro-democracy
movement, with demonstrators angry at what they perceive as
increased meddling by Beijing in the freedoms promised to the
former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
China denies interfering and says it is committed to the
"one country, two systems" formula put in place at that time and
has blamed foreign forces for fomenting unrest.
(Writing by Marius Zaharia
Editing by Gareth Jones)
