Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers yesterday marched through the center of Hong Kong Island to the vicinity of government headquarters, ignoring a police-approved end point and defying a ruling that shortened the planned route.
The march marked the sixth straight week of anti-government rallies that have put increasing pressure on the Hong Kong government.
The organizer, the Civil Human Rights Front said that the rallies, which have drawn hundreds of thousands of people, were held to show support for demands including the withdrawal of legislation that would allow extraditions to China, amnesty for arrested protesters and the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥), who is backed by Beijing.
Photo: AP
The Appeal Board on Public Meetings and Processions on Saturday ruled that the march, originally planned to end at the Court of Final Appeal in Central, must finish in the Wan Chai district, citing potential difficulties in crowd control.
However, marchers ignored the ruling, and police retreated and shifted their barricades to allow the mass of protesters past the Wan Chai end point.
Shopkeepers along the route supplied marchers with water and other drinks as the temperature in the territory hovered above 30°C.
Barricades surrounding the police station in Wan Chai were converted into so-called “Lennon Walls,” spontaneous message boards adorned with brightly colored sticky labels.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo (毛孟靜) said that protesters wanted Lam to pledge not to target people who took part in the rallies.
“We would like her to say that there will be no prosecution of the protesters arrested, that there will be general amnesty in this very sad saga,” Mo said.
“She refuses in the name of the rule of law,” she said.
Lam will not resign and will not make any further concessions to the protesters, Hong Kong Executive Council Convener Bernard Chan (陳智思) said in an interview with the New York Times published on Friday.
The chief executive would consult with different sectors of the Hong Kong population and would concentrate on drafting a broad policy address for the middle of October, the report quoted Chan as saying.
Kingston Cheung, a 17-year-old student who has taken part in the protests since they started on June 9, said he marched yesterday to voice opposition to the government’s handling of previous protests.
“The focus of the protests has been about the extradition bill, but we are also starting to see how the government and police have mishandled them,” he said. “The abuse of power by the police has added to the public’s anger.”
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
Taiwan has signed six arms procurement offers from the US totaling more than NT$208 billion (US$6.59 billion) covering long-range precision strike systems, missile stockpile replenishment and joint production of large-caliber ammunition, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The government’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion special defense budget has been stalled in the Legislative Yuan as opposition lawmakers question the amount and procurement items, while the Presidential Office and defense ministry say that the full amount is necessary to safeguard Taiwan. Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) on Monday briefed the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on the defense budget for
RSS