Thousands of people travel through the streets of Hong Kong with predominantly black T-shirts and occupy important traffic arteries. They are thus resisting the ban on demonstrating in Hong Kong. The situation escalated on Saturday afternoon (local time): the protesters broke through police bans and tried to storm Parliament.
Security forces deploy tear gas and water cannons. The water is colored blue - apparently, to later identify the demonstrators easier.
Anthony Wallace / AFP
Hong Kong Police Use Blue-Colored Water Against Protesters
Some of the demonstrators threw petrol bombs - so-called Molotov cocktails - or stones at the police forces. Many tried to protect themselves from the water cannons with umbrellas
In the Chinese Special Administrative Region, there have been mass demonstrations for more democracy and increasing influence in Beijing for three months. There had been violent clashes last weekend. The officers used, among other things, water cannons against the demonstrators, for the first time since the beginning of the protests fired a police officer from a shot.
Immediately before planned new protests Saturday on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Umbrella Movement 2014, the authorities on Friday were also massively against democracy activists proceed: The police took the protest leaders Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow and at least three other well-known activists and three related to the democracy movement MEPs firmly. Another activist, Andy Chan, had already been arrested on Thursday. He is accused of having participated in riots and attacked police officers.
"Hallelujah" as a protest song
Wong and Chow have since been released on bail. The situation is still tense. In the face of pressure, the organizers of the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) canceled a major rally planned for Saturday, which had already been banned by police on Thursday. It would have been an illegal gathering so participants would have to expect legal consequences.
In the video: China threatens the demonstrators in Hong Kong again
Billy HC Kwok / Getty Images
However, the CHRF announced other actions. Among other things, a religious march. Thousands of people marched on Saturday along prominent sacral sites in Sheung Wan Historical District and on towards the government district. Many "walked" only, as they said, on the sidewalk and refrained from blocking roads. Partially "Hallelujah" was sung.
Exactly five years ago, the Chinese government decided to ban political reform in Hong Kong. This decision triggered the so-called Umbrella Movement in 2014. At that time, the now 22-year-old Wong had led the 79-day protests. Politically, he is still active, but he is not a leader as 2014. The protest movement of 2019 attaches importance to having no more publicly dominating leaders.
The protests are directed against China's increasing pressure on Hong Kong. Beijing had granted the former British Crown Colony, at the 1997 takeover under the principle of "one country, two systems", at least 50 years of fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of the press. According to the demonstrators, this assurance is gradually being eroded. The cause for the protests was a extradition law, which provided for transfers of suspects to mainland China, but has since been stopped.