‘The Siege of Wan Chai’: How a WTO protest descended into a riot
Looking back at Hong Kong’s last designated ‘riot’, in 2005 when anti-World Trade Organisation protestors clashed with police
“The Siege of Wan Chai,” was splashed on the front page of the Sunday Morning Post on December 18, 2005.
Hong Kong witnessed the worst violence seen in decades a day earlier.
Then-police chief Dick Lee Ming-kwai did not hesitate to brand the scenes in Wan Chai as a “riot,” as similar scales of violence unfolded in Mong Kok recently, marking the last time authorities made a declaration on the severity of public disorder.
Threats of a riot stalked delegates attending the sixth round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Hong Kong from December 13-18th, 2005.
During the trade talks, the Convention and Exhibition Centre became a fortress, and the streets and waters surrounding the building was in lock down. Many attempts were made by protesters to reach WTO delegates and disrupt the precarious negotiations.
Some 1,000 anti-WTO protestors, opposed to globalisation, erupted on the streets of Wan Chai that Saturday afternoon as mainly militant South Korean farmers clashed with police officers.
