Hong Kong Protesters, Inspired By the Late Great Martial Artist Bruce Lee, Stun Beijing
HONG KONG—A citywide strike and a series of anti-police activities shut down much of what is normally an international financial center and logistics hub here on Monday, as the city entered its ninth week of protests. Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flagship airline, canceled more than 150 flights. The subway was paralyzed. Major banks shut their branches. Shops were closed for the day. The Hang Seng stock index dipped by more than 3.6 percent at market closing, wiping out all gains made since January.
Many of the protestors, who have adopted the black as their color and wear it from head to toe, are in their teens or twenties. How did they manage to bring a major city almost to a halt?
An organization called the Civil Human Rights Front that is affiliated with all of Hong Kong’s democratic camps, including dozens of political parties and nongovernmental organizations, has pulled together the massive marches that have involved up to two million people at a time. But groups of “front line” protestors have adopted tactics and strategies of their own to express their dissent in ways that resemble guerrilla warfare rather than planned rallies.