Hong Kong heats up again

More argy-bargy

MASKED men attacked pro-democracy protesters for the second time in as many weeks on the morning of October 13th in Hong Kong’s

Admiralty business district. The scuffles prompted bankers walking to work on blockaded thoroughfares to shout out in defence of the young demonstrators.

Just as in earlier attacks on protesters in the residential neighbourhood of Mong Kok, on the other side of Hong Kong harbour, the young men

picked fights and removed protesters’ barricades. This time the strife took place in the shadow of major banks’ headquarters, including the towering Bank of China building.

Society is divided and patience is wearing thin among small-business owners and workers as the “Occupy Hong Kong” demonstrations enter their third week. The stand-off in the financial district continued for hours after police whisked the masked men away, as older people arrived on the scene to berate protesters and demand that they “open the road”.

A cavalcade of taxi drivers, angered by loss of business, drove up to the barricades and honked their horns, accusing student protesters of “chilling out in tents” while the working class struggle to make a living. Earlier in the morning a group of about a hundred peoplesurrounded the office of