Nearly three months after police cleared away the last of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy street protests, lingering anger is stoking a new front of radical activism that has turned shopping malls and university campuses into a fresh battleground.
While still relatively few in number, a cluster of outspoken groups have staged small but disruptive protests in recent weeks targeting mainland Chinese visitors - tapping a seam of grassroots resentment to call for greater Hong Kong nationalism and even independence from China.
More than 100 such activists descended on the New Town Plaza, a mega-mall a short train ride from the border, on a recent Sunday to harass the day-trippers who stream across daily to shop, eat and sight-see. The mainlanders - 40.7 million of which visited the city of 7 million last year - spur the local economy, but also exasperate locals by clogging streets and emptying store shelves of cosmetics, baby formula and other essentials.
