Clashes between Hong Kong police and protestors as thousands march against Chinese traders in …

HONG KONG: Several thousand Hong Kong people marched on Saturday (Jul 13) to protest against mainland Chinese traders in a border town, tapping into sentiment behind huge demonstrations against an extradition Bill to highlight another problem they see as having been mismanaged.

The demonstration in the town of Sheung Shui, not far from the Chinese city of Shenzhen, started peacefully but evolved into scuffles and shouting, with police firing pepper spray at protesters who threw umbrellas and hard hats back.

Sheung Shui boasts dozens of pharmacies and cosmetic stores that are hugely popular with mainland merchants who snap up goods in Hong Kong – where there is no sales tax – and resell them across the border.

Hong Kong police in an update at about 6.20pm on Twitter called on demonstrators to stop the violence and leave the area as soon as possible.

“Members of the public who are not related to the demonstration should leave peacefully and not take part in any illegal acts,” the spokesman said.

In a subsequent update at about 7.45pm, the police spokesman said that it was clear that the Sheung Shui assembly had been organised and planned. 

Several violent demonstrators also initiated attacks against the police by throwing objects and unspecified powders, the spokesman added.

The spokesman also reiterated the police’s call for members of the public to avoid the area, as well as urged the demonstrators to stop all “illegal activities” as soon as possible. 

Photos circulating on social media show injured protesters receiving first aid after clashing with the authorities.

Cantopop singer Denise Ho said in a post on Twitter that an eyewitness had seen a man who had fallen onto the ground be “beaten by eight policemen”, leaving him with a head wound and blood coming out from his mouth. 

The protest is the latest in a string of demonstrations that has roiled the former British colony for more than a month, fuelling its biggest political crisis since China regained control in 1997.

Street protests have drawn in millions, with hundreds even storming the legislature on Jul 1 to oppose the now-suspended extradition Bill that would have allowed criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to China to face trial.

Critics see the Bill as a threat to Hong Kong’s rule of law. Chief Executive Carrie Lam this week said the Bill was “dead” after having suspended it last month, but opponents vow to settle for nothing short of its formal withdrawal.

Most protests centred on the central business district, but demonstrators have recently begun to look elsewhere to widen support by taking up narrower, more domestic issues.

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“Our lovely town has become chaos,” said Ryan Lai, 50, a resident of Sheung Shui, where so-called “parallel traders” buy bulk quantities of duty-free goods to resell in China.

“We don’t want to stop travel and buying, but please, just make it orderly and legal,” he added. “The extradition Bill was the tipping point for us to come out. We want Sheung Shui back.”

Parallel traders have long been a source of tension.

While they bring business to regions near the border, many locals complain about the huge daily crowds and the rent hikes that come with the booming trade.

In recent years there has also been a backlash against the influx of mainland tourists and immigrants, with more hardcore protesters describing them in derogatory terms such as “locusts”.

About one million mainlanders have moved to Hong Kong since its 1997 handover, a flashpoint issue in the notoriously overcrowded city which already boasts one of the world’s most expensive property markets.

Hundreds of police patrolled nearby streets as protesters chanted demands in Mandarin, China’s official language, for the traders to go home. Many street-level shops were shuttered ahead of the march.

“We want to raise awareness in Washington that the United States has to do more now to help Hong Kong become fully democratic,” said a resident of the nearby town of Fanling, who was one of five people in the crowd carrying US flags.

“They are the most important power left that can stand up to China,” added the 30-year-old man, who gave his name only as David, declining to reveal his surname.

Hong Kong’s lack of full democracy was behind the recent unrest, said Jimmy Sham, of the Civil Human Rights Front, which organised protests against the extradition Bill.

“The government, Carrie Lam, some legislators in functional constituencies are not elected by the people, so there are many escalating actions in different districts to reflect different social issues,” he said.

“If political problems are not solved, social well-being issues will continue to emerge endlessly.”

Similar protests have included a march last week by nearly 2,000 people in the Tuen Mun residential district to protest against what they saw as the nuisance of brash singing and dancing to Mandarin pop songs by middle-aged mainland women.

On Sunday, tens of thousands marched in one of Kowloon’s most popular tourist shopping areas, trying to persuade mainland Chinese tourists to back opposition to the extradition Bill.

READ: Hong Kong extradition Bill: How it came to be declared ‘dead’

When former colonial ruler Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997, Chinese Communist leaders promised the city a high degree of autonomy for 50 years.

But many say China has progressively tightened its grip, putting Hong Kong’s freedoms under threat through a range of measures such as the extradition Bill.

Anti-extradition protesters plan another demonstration on Sunday in the town of Sha Tin, in the so-called New Territories between Hong Kong island and the border with China.