Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam warned on Tuesday the city could not afford further „chaos“ as activists marked a year of sustained pro-democracy rallies with lunchtime protests in several shopping malls.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam warned on Tuesday the city could not afford further “chaos” as activists marked a year of sustained pro-democracy rallies with lunchtime protests in several shopping malls.
The global financial hub is on alert for unrest with larger gatherings planned for the evening to mark the first anniversary of a mass rally that galvanised the pro-democracy movement.
That first rally, which drew an estimated more than one million protesters in a city of 7.5 million people, was spurred by proposed legislation to allow people to be extradited to mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the Communist Party.
Lam later withdrew the bill but the legislation triggered widespread concern that the central government in Beijing was stifling freedoms in the former British colony despite promises it would retain a high level of autonomy, sparking months of often-violent protests.
“All of us can see the difficulty we have been through in the past year, and due to such serious situations we have more problems to deal with,” Lam said during her weekly media conference.
