Thousands of Hong Kongers sang a popular protest anthem and chanted slogans across the city Friday as they marked the one year anniversary of major …
Thousands of Hong Kongers sang a popular protest anthem and chanted slogans across the city Friday as they marked the one year anniversary of major clashes between police and pro-democracy demonstrators.
Riot police declared the gatherings unlawful assemblies and a breach of anti-coronavirus bans on public gatherings, sending snatch squads to make multiple arrests throughout the evening.
The financial hub’s protest movement kicked off on June 9 last year with a huge march against an unpopular bill that would have allowed extraditions to the Chinese mainland.
But it was three days later that the first sustained clashes broke out between protesters and riot police firing tear gas outside the city’s legislature.
Such scenes became a weekly, and at times daily, occurrence over the next seven months as Hong Kong was upended by unprecedented unrest fuelled by fears Beijing was eroding the semi-autonomous city’s limited freedoms.
Hong Kong enjoys liberties unseen on the mainland as part of the «one country, two systems» deal made when colonial power Britain handed it back to China in 1997.
A protester holds a flag reading ‘Free Hong Kong — Revolution Now’ in a shopping mall. Thousands took part in protests, defying a ban on public gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak
DALE DE LA REY, AFP
On Friday night, thousands answered online calls to gather at 8:00 pm (1200 GMT) in local malls and neighbourhoods to chant pro-democracy slogans and sing «Glory to Hong Kong» — a protest anthem that became hugely popular during the turmoil.
