The Financial Times (July 28) reported that tens of thousands of Hong Kong protesters besieged traditional villages in the territory’s northern district of Yuen Long in defiance of police on 27 July afternoon as the city’s worst political crisis in decades took a dangerous turn. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse helmeted and mask-wearing demonstrators who ripped down a fence and tried to force their way into the Yuen Long village of Nam Bin Wai. Villagers vowed to defend their ancestral hall, the cultural centre of their community. A villager said “We will not attack unless we are attacked.” 

The Financial Times said over the past week, the demonstrations have degenerated into political violence between different groups in Hong Kong society rather than just a confrontation with the government. Demonstrations in Yuen Long were in retaliation against violent attacks by white-shirted men last weekend at a railway station in the area, some of whom were accused of being members of Hong Kong’s triad criminal gangs. The men beat protesters inside Yuen Long’s commuter railway station who were returning home from mass demonstrations in central Hong Kong, before running into the surrounding villages, including allegedly the village of Nam Bin Wai. Hongkong is entering its third month of demonstrations against a proposed extradition bill that would allow criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.