Hong Kongers sing protest anthem one year after major clashes
13 June, 2020
Thousands of Hong Kongers sang a favorite protest anthem and chanted slogans across the town Friday (Jun 12) because they marked the main one year anniversary of key clashes between police and demonstrators.
Riot law enforcement declared the gatherings unlawful assemblies and a good breach of anti-coronavirus bans on people gatherings, mailing snatch squads to create multiple arrests throughout the evening.
The financial hub's protest movement kicked off on Jun 9 this past year with an enormous march against an unpopular Expenses that would have allowed extraditions to the Chinese mainland.
Nonetheless it was three times later on that the first sustained clashes broke out between protesters and riot law enforcement firing tear gas beyond your city's legislature.
Such scenes became a weekly, and at times daily, occurrence over another 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 loves liberties unseen on the mainland within the "one country, several systems" deal built when colonial power Britain handed it back again to China in 1997.
On Friday nighttime, thousands answered online calls to assemble at 8.00pm (1200 GMT) in localized malls and neighbourhoods to chant slogans and sing "Glory to Hong Kong" - a protest anthem that became hugely popular through the turmoil.
Live tv set showed rallies occurring in half twelve districts, defying a ban in public gatherings because of the coronavirus outbreak.
"I came below because our goals possess not been achieved, so I have to continue coming out," a 28-year-old community worker, who gave his surname So, told AFP in Causeway Bay, a popular buying district where hundreds had gathered.
"We must tell the government that people won't give up, no matter how many of us are remaining," he added.
Police said a complete of 35 persons were arrested.
In the district of Kwun Tong, live broadcasts confirmed a guy with a knife being subdued by protesters and police.
Police said the person had stabbed another person and was arrested.
"PANIC-MONGERING"
Demonstrators are pushing for a great inquiry into police brutality, a great amnesty for the roughly 9,000 persons arrested above the protests and general suffrage.
China has refused and portrayed the protests seeing that a foreign plot to destabilise the mainland.
Previous month it unveiled plans to impose a fresh national security law on Hong Kong targeting subversion, succession, terrorism and overseas interference.
Beijing says the law will restore order.
But critics, including many Western governments, fear it'll bring mainland-design political oppression to a metropolis supposedly guaranteed freedoms and autonomy for 50 years following its handover.
China has described Britain's considerations that the security regulation might undermine Hong Kong's autonomy as "groundless panic-mongering".
The comments came a day time after Britain renewed its call for an unbiased inquiry to "rebuild trust" and heal divisions.
Chinese international ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying dismissed British concerns as "unwarranted foreign interference on Hong Kong's affairs" that "is only going to make China more motivated in advancing the national security legislation for Hong Kong," state-run Xinhua current information agency reported late on Friday.
In an previous rally Friday more than a hundred students formed a human chain outside a school in which a teacher was reportedly fired because she allowed a candidate to enjoy "Glory to Hong Kong" in a music exam.
The rallies since Beijing announced its countrywide security law plans have already been small and less violent than last year.
On Tuesday, flashmob rallies were held to tag the one time anniversary of the protests beginning.
The week before thousands defied the general public gathering ban to peacefully tag the anniversary of Beijing's Jun 4, 1989 deadly crackdown on students in Tiananmen Square.
At least 13 prominent activists have since received court summons for inciting unlawful assemblies.
Amnesty International called the charges "the most recent assault about freedom of expression and tranquil assembly in the town" in a statement in Friday.
"With China's Orwellian national security law approaching, the Hong Kong authorities seem emboldened to crank up repression of critical voices," Man-Kei Tam, the rights group's Hong Kong director said.
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