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Hong Kong: Police officers in heavy gear in the popular shopping area of Causeway Bay
Photo:
Liau Chung-ren / imago images / ZUMA Wire
Despite far-reaching restrictions and a large police presence, hundreds of people demonstrated against the governments in Hong Kong and Beijing on the Chinese National Day.
The protests were directed against the arrest of twelve members of the democracy movement who had been apprehended by the Chinese coast guard while trying to escape to Taiwan in September.
The police arrested at least 69 people on Thursday, according to a statement from the authority.
Most of them are accused of attending unapproved meetings.
The South China Morning Post newspaper wrote that around 6,000 police officers were present in the Chinese Special Administrative Region.
Gatherings of more than four people are prohibited due to the corona pandemic.
Nevertheless, smaller groups - often deliberately no more than four people - of demonstrators formed in places where the marches usually take place, including the Causeway Bay shopping district.
There had been some of the most violent clashes between protesters and police in 2019.
Joshua Wong: "Today is not a holiday"
Most recently, the authorities had rejected a request from the organization Civil Human Rights Front - an umbrella group of the democracy movement - to hold their annual march on the public holiday on October 1st.
Quite a few demonstrators usually use the founding day of the People's Republic to demonstrate against the rule of Beijing in Hong Kong.
"Today is not a public holiday," activist Joshua Wong told reporters.
It is time the world became aware of how the Communist Party was silencing the voice of Hong Kong.
"The national security of our country has been protected and our citizens can again exercise their rights and freedoms in accordance with the law," said Prime Minister Carrie Lam at a ceremony with senior Chinese officials, which was shielded by police officers and security barriers.
China passed a so-called security law for Hong Kong at the end of June.
It is directed against activities that China sees as subversive, separatist or terrorist.
The law is the strongest encroachment on Hong Kong's autonomy to date and gives China's state security extensive powers.
Hong Kong's democratic opposition believes the law will target them.
Since the return of the former British crown colony to China in 1997, Hong Kong had been ruled autonomously with its own civil liberties.
From the point of view of critics, the State Security Act marks the end of the "one country, two systems" principle that has been pursued since 1997.
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mes / dpa / AFP