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 Traffic flowed freely along Queensway Road after the protesters'
obstructions were cleared but other major protest sites remained
intact in the Admiralty and Mong Kok districts and pro-democracy
demonstrators were defiant.
"We will rebuild them after the police remove them," said protester
Bruce Sze. "We won't confront the police physically."
Unlike on Monday, when clashes erupted between anti-protest groups
and pro-democracy activists after police removed blockades,
Tuesday's operation resulted in no confrontation.
Police with chainsaws cut through bamboo defences and others wielded
sledgehammers to smash concrete blocks outside the Bank of China's
Hong Kong headquarters and next to the office of Asia's richest man,
Li Ka-shing.
Office workers streamed onto the streets to watch.
The protesters, most of them students, are demanding full democracy
for the former British colony, but their two-week campaign has
caused traffic chaos and fuelled frustration in the Asian financial
hub, draining some public support.
China rules Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" formula
that accords the city a degree of autonomy and freedom not enjoyed
in mainland China, with universal suffrage an eventual goal.
But Beijing has said only candidates screened by a nomination
committee will be able to contest a full city-wide vote to choose
the next chief executive in 2017.
The city's pro-Beijing leader, Leung Chun-ying, said this week there
was "zero chance" China's leaders would give in to protesters'
demands and change an August decision limiting democracy. The
protesters want Leung to step down.
The Hong Kong and Beijing governments have called the protests
illegal. Some of the city's most powerful tycoons had earlier warned
that occupying the heart of the city to press for democracy could
undermine stability. They have remained largely silent since the
protests began.
ATTRITION
By noon on Tuesday, the Queensway Road thoroughfare was open and
traffic, including school and tour buses, streamed into the Central
business district that is home to global companies such as HSBC
Holdings and Standard Chartered.
A main city tram line was also open again and trams were clattering
through the district.
"Police have done a good job this time. The traffic is much better
now, at least vehicles can move steadily compared with the past week
when you couldn't move at all," said Luk Wai-lam, a taxi driver in
his 60s.
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There had been fears of trouble on Wednesday with anti-protest taxi
and truck drivers setting a deadline then for the barricades to go
but a representative of a taxi drivers' group told Reuters on
Tuesday his members had no plan for action.
Police, criticised for using tear gas and batons in the first 24
hours of the protests, have adopted a more patient approach,
counting on protesters to come under public pressure to clear main
arteries.
The number of protesters has fallen off sharply from a peak of about
100,000 at three sites, but observers believe they will sit it out.
"I don't think the protesters, having suffered tear gas, endured the
attacks by the anti-occupy people, I don't think they will just
surrender unconditionally and leave," said Joseph Wong, political
analyst at the University of Hong Kong.
Police said clearing of the barricades was aimed at easing
congestion and the protesters could stay, which suggested a strategy
of attrition. About 100 activists staged a sit-in outside the
Admiralty Centre shopping complex surrounded by scores of police.
Many students believed Monday's clashes were co-ordinated and
involved triad criminal groups and people paid to cause trouble and
they reinforced their barricades on Monday night, putting up bamboo
scaffolding along one thoroughfare.
They also poured concrete over the foundations of their road blocks
and placed bamboo spears in their barricades.
But police swept it all away on Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Bobby Yip, Carlos Barria and Clare Baldwin,
Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Michael Perry)
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