Hong Kong Airport Shuts Down Amid Pro-Democracy Protest

(Associated Press) YANAN WANG and CHRISTOPHER BODEEN August 12 2019 HONG KONG One of the worlds busiest airports canceled all flights after thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators crowded into Hong Kongs main terminal Monday while the central government in Beijing issued an ominous characterization of the protest movement as something approaching terrorism." The extreme action by the largely leaderless movement seemed calculated to prompt a stern response from Beijing and Communist Party leader Xi Jinpings administration responded within hours. No new violence was reported by Monday evening although the city remained on edge after more than two months of near-daily and increasingly bloody confrontations between protesters and police. Beijing tends toward a broad definition of terrorism including in it nonviolent protests of government policies on the environment or in minority regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet. Such a designation adds to the regimes descriptions of protesters as clowns criminals and traitors intent on overthrowing Chinese rule in Hong Kong. Hong Kong International Airport said in a statement the demonstration seriously disrupted" airport operations. Only flights that had already started boarding or those cleared for landing were allowed to use runways at the airport. All other flights have been canceled for the rest of today" the airport statement said. It later said flights would resume at 6 a.m. Tuesday (2200 GMT 6 p.m. EDT Monday). Joydeep Chakravarti a software engineer whose connecting flight to San Francisco was canceled during a layover in Hong Kong expressed frustration that he was told to leave the airport when he wanted to stay inside the terminal.