Protesters force suspension of Hong Kong airport activity for 2nd day

(Image credit: PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty Images)

published 13 August 2019

Anti-government protesters reoccupied Hong Kong's airport for a second straight day Tuesday, forcing airlines to suspend check-in for departing flights, The Washington Post reports. The escalating dissent came after the sternest warning from Beijing in the 22 years since Britain returned the semi-autonomous financial hub to Chinese control.

"The radical demonstrators in Hong Kong have repeatedly attacked police with extremely dangerous tools in recent days, which constitutes a serious violent crime, and now they are descending into terrorism," said Yang Guang, a spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office in Beijing. It was the first time China had referred to the protests as "terrorism," raising fears it could resort to military force to quiet the demonstrations. A Chinese paramilitary unit reportedly massed near Hong Kong's border.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.