Scattered protests as China tightens screw on Hong Kong
Several thousand demonstrators marched in Hong Kong yesterday evening -- defying authorities a year after huge pro-democracy protests erupted -- as the movement struggles in the face of arrests, coronavirus bans on crowds and a looming national security law.
Seven months of massive and often violent rallies kicked off on June 9 last year when as many as a million people took to the streets to oppose a bill allowing extraditions to mainland China.
As city leaders dug in, battles between police and protesters became routine, leaving the financial hub's reputation for stability in tatters and swathes of the population in open revolt against Beijing's rule.
A year later, protesters are on the back foot with Beijing planning to impose a sweeping law banning subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign interference.
Anti-virus measures also forbid more than eight people gathering in public.
Small rallies still flare up, however.
Defiant crowds a few-thousand strong gathered yesterday evening in the city's upmarket Central district to march and chant slogans.
Riot police were quick to close in and the crowds quickly dispersed, with scattered arrests made.
Earlier Tuesday, organisers of last year's huge rallies called on the government to lift legitimate protest restrictions on a city now largely free of coronavirus infections.
But city leader Carrie Lam, an unpopular pro-Beijing appointee, said the protests must end.
"Hong Kong cannot afford such chaos," she said, adding residents needed to prove Hong Kong people "are reasonable and sensible citizens of the People's Republic of China" if they want their freedoms and autonomy to continue.
Under a deal signed with Britain ahead of the 1997 handover, China agreed to let Hong Kong keep certain freedoms and autonomy for 50 years.
But protests over the last decade have been fuelled by fears those freedoms are being prematurely curtailed, something Beijing denies.
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