On #China’s National Day, riot police in #HongKong are standing by around Sogo in Causeway Bay, waiting to stop and search citizens.
A middle-age man was surrounded by police for carrying a yellow balloon .
Former legislator @ray_slowbeat was also surrounded by police while he was still preparing to set up a stop by the side of the road. He questioned why the police didn’t stop and search pro-#China groups when they are doing the same thing.
Rather bizarre scene in #HongKong. Police cordoned off an area around the middle aged man carrying a yellow balloon. Yes, a man with a balloon is now being surrounded by police and interrogated.
Journalists at the scene captured the media liaison team under the @hkpoliceforce wearing their new vest.
Hong Kong police claimed that the behaviors of the man with yellow balloon could hurt passersby.
A team of around 20 riot police with different types of weapons arrived at the scene. They are positioned around the entrance near Sogo.
Police has raised the blue warning flag, declaring the protest an illegal gathering and asking the crowd to disperse before they use force to disperse them.
A map showing the current location of #HongKong police around Causeway Bay.
A citizen was waving a US flag and close to 50 police were following him.
A guy began to play air flute by the side of the street.
Police suddenly pushed towards the crowd and shouted at the crowd, asking them to leave.
Two citizens were surrounded by police because they were holding signs.
Former #HongKong journalist Bruce Lui was at the scene to observe how the police enforce the new definition of media. Some of his students were reporting at the scene too. He teaches at HKBU now.
Live location of police around Causeway Bay and Tin Hau, at 2 pm local time.
Police suddenly set up cordoned line outside Sogo.
A middle aged man was surrounded by police and citizens at the scene were not happy with it.
A man said he was on his way to work and suddenly police surrounded him and told him that he looked suspicious. They stopped and searched his bag. He was later let you.
Police raised the blue flag again and asked the crowd to disperse. They began to push towards the crowd.
Police asked the crowd to disperse towards the direction of Victoria Park but citizens angrily shouted slogans at them, including “the whole family of evil police will die.”
Police raised blue flag and walked into the mall. They cordoned off an area in the mall.
Police is slowly backing out of the mall.
Several citizens were trapped behind the cordoned line.
Police asked journalists to back off so they can conduct stop and searches of all citizens in the cordoned off area. Citizens can be seen lining up and waiting to be searched.
Protesters at scene were divided into two groups by the police. Those wearing dark collar shirts were asked to be on the side of the road.
Police warned citizens not to curse while waiting in line or they will be charged with disorderly conduct.
Police shouted at journalists at the scene, asking them to back off to the media area and also asked them to present their IDs. This is one of the first major protest since police changed their regulations about determining members of the press.
Police pushed a man into the cordoned zone and he was being searched.
A young man was searched right by the police van.
Police was searching a group of journalists.
A citizen held up an advertisement on @appledaily_hk that says “conscience” in Mandarin.
Police raised the purple warning flag for the first time today, warning citizens that their actions might have violated the #NSL.
Citizens continue to chant the now-banned slogan “Liberate #HongKong, Revolution of Our Time.”
Citizens were lined up to be searched and checked.
A citizen was waving a Chinese flag and the police didn’t ask him to stop doing so. They only asked him to lower his voice.
Police is searching the guy who was playing Glory to #HongKong with his air flute.
Police tried to stop and search two young men and pushed journalists back, preventing them from filming it.
A man wearing black collapsed on the ground. It was suspected that he had difficulty breathing and tried to take off his mask. But the police reportedly ignored the fact that his mask dropped to the ground and forced him to put it up again.
United States President Joe Biden on Friday (Dec 20) approved US$571.3 million in defence assistance for #Taiwan, the White House said, as the Democrat prepares to leave office ahead of the January inauguration of Donald Trump.
In a brief statement, the White House said Biden had authorised his secretary of state to "direct the drawdown of up to US$571.3 million in defence articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan".
The statement did not provide details of the military assistance package, which comes less than three months after a similar package worth US$567 million was authorised.
My latest: #China has sent officials to the Russian central bank to study the effects of Western sanctions for a better understanding of how it would be affected if it were to invade Taiwan.
Beijing had already set up a task force months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, which was tasked with producing reports about the impacts of Western sanctions on the Russian economy.
China is “very interested” in “practically everything” about the sanctions, including potentially positive effects on domestic production, a person with knowledge of the specialist task force told the Wall Street Journal.
A Beijing court sentenced veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu on Friday to seven years in prison for espionage, a family member told Reuters.
Former Guangming Daily editor and journalist Dong Yuyu, 62, was detained by police in Beijing in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, according to a statement from the US National Press Club, and later charged with espionage.
There was a heavy police presence outside Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, with at least seven police cars parked nearby. Reuters journalists were asked to leave the area.
Australia and the Philippines said their militaries would conduct a joint maritime activity with Japan, New Zealand and the United States in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, which covers one of Asia's most sensitive sites. channelnewsasia.com/asia/philippin…
"The Maritime Cooperative Activity demonstrates our collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific," Australia's Department of Defence said.
The joint exercise comes after a series of air and sea encounters between the Philippines and China, which have sparred over disputed areas of the South China Sea, including the Scarborough Shoal, one of Asia's most contested features.
My latest: As #China and Russia look to deepen cooperation in the Arctic, analysts cite concern about increasing geopolitical competition in the region, forcing countries to think more about how to respond to potential threats.
Following a meeting between Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Moscow on August 21, China released an expansive communique outlining ways the two countries are boosting cooperation.
On the Arctic, Beijing and Moscow pledged to strengthen cooperation in areas including shipping development, navigation safety, polar ship technology and construction.
The EU is expected to notify #China that it will impose tariffs on electric vehicle imports this week, firing the starting gun on a potential summer trade war with Beijing. theguardian.com/business/artic…
A formal pre-disclosure of tariffs could happen as early as Wednesday, after a lengthy investigation into China’s state subsidies for its car manufacturing, which is predicted to conclude that massive support continues to be concentrated on the EV sector.
Chinese manufacturers are already bracing themselves for new import duties, but experts anticipate that Beijing will retaliate with countermeasures that could hit a range of EU exports to the country, ranging from cognac to dairy products.