On Feb. 8, there was an anti-parallel-trading protest in Tuen Mun, during which police used pepper spray and arrested 13 demonstrators.

Hongkongers, particularly in the Northern District, are becoming increasingly disgruntled with the growing number of smugglers who cross back and forth between the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border.

Sean, an American who has lived in Hong Kong for 10 years and currently resides in Sha Tin, joined the crowds gathering at the starting point of the protest, the Tuen Mun MTR Station, at 3pm.

He said that he was concerned with how the government has no intention to address the issue, a common complaint.

Everyday life has been affected by the overflow of shoppers, he claimed.

Another man, aged 30, has lived in Tuen Mun for most of his life. He says he has witnessed the transformation of his neighbourhood since parallel trading began.

“I have lived here for 24 years,” he said. “The development of drugstores and the flow of travellers have disfigured our everyday lives”.

He’s referring to the recent phenomenon of a high number of drugstores opening in the area. They cater to parallel traders by selling the goods that are in high demand by smugglers.

“I don’t unwelcome tourists from other regions, but these shoppers or smugglers really have no respect for the community at all. It makes sense that if they come, they should at the very least respect our culture”.

“The shops in the district are no longer catered for the local community, and prices for everything kept going up”.

Yet the young man is hopeful.

“Like in the Umbrella Revolution, people became aware and start questioning. Eventually the government will be pressured to solve the issue.”

The day after the protests, bus company KMB announced tighter luggage restrictions on their border-bound bus routes.

As the crowds neared a street now infamous for being “taken over” by drugstores, the demonstrators chanted, “Stop grey market smugglers, cancel multi-entry permits”, and called drugstore owners “traitors”.

One local gave an impromptu speech about being shoved by people rolling suitcases every time he went home after work, and how his living expenses were skyrocketing. The drugstores were thus their partners in crime, he concluded.

With emotions starting to run high, clashes began to occur as a few elderly pro-China men started to cause a scene.

The police reacted quickly and cordoned off the area.

Some anti-parallel-trade protesters accused the police of protecting the fofenders. The crowd started chanting “Black police!” – a chant often heard during the pro-democracy protests.

Through the march officially ended when they reached Tuen Mun Town Plaza, many protesters moved inside the mall, which they claim has been affected by the parallel traders.

The police quickly dispersed the crowds by wielding batons and sealing off entrances to malls.

One old man complained to his companion about how he believed the government “no longer represented the people”, and that the shops in the area were not for them.

He added that he felt marginalised in his own home and Hong Kong was losing its identity.

One woman, named Heidi and aged 22, claimed to see the police using pepper spray indiscriminately and without warning.

Also a Shatin resident, the young woman said she was here to show her support as her life was also affected by the growing number of mainland Chinese shoppers and smugglers.

The crowds started to turn their focus from the smugglers to the police.

One young man, yelling at the police through a loudspeaker, said. “You lot are paid by us taxpayers, and now you hit us instead and protect [the smugglers], shouldn’t you be protecting us from harm instead?”

The next morning, Heidi sent me a text message about another anti-smuggling protest in Sha Tin the following weekend. It was clear that as long as people perceive the government to be indifferent to the issue, these protests will go on for a long time.

Words/Photos: Thomas Chan

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