"Freedom for Hong Kong" and "Hong Kong give gas" called the demonstrators in a big protest march in the center of the Chinese Special Administrative Region and joined the anthem of the protest movement. Despite a ban, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets for democracy and human rights on Chinese National Day.
It came again to clashes of radical protesters with the police. Activists blocked roads and set fire, whereupon officers reacted with tear gas.
With high security, the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China had started in the morning in the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Barred by the public, invited guests followed a ceremony at the exhibition center, which was broadcast to the closed rooms.
An honor guard hoisted the national flag on the golden Bauhinia statue, a landmark of the former British Crown Colony. Two helicopters with a large Chinese and a smaller Hong Kong flag flew over the harbor along the Hong Kong skyline.
The protesters demand, among other things, free elections
Protesters call for an independent investigation of police violence in the five-month protests, an amnesty of the more than 1,500 arrested so far, a withdrawal of their protests as a "riot," and free elections.
In anticipation of the riots, the authorities closed in the morning a few streets and subway stations in the city center. At least 6,000 police officers were on hand, as the Hong Kong newspaper "South China Morning Post" reported. Several large shopping centers and hundreds of shops in the city remained closed; Some hotels advised their guests to stay indoors.
Hong Kong's head of government Carrie Lam, hated by the protest movement, did not spend the holiday in the city. Together with a large delegation she had traveled to the big military parade in Beijing.
People in Hong Kong fear for freedom of expression
Hong Kong authorities had forbidden a planned large Tuesday protest march in advance. Nevertheless, the democracy movement had announced several protests for the day.
Weekend protests in Hong Kong again saw serious clashes between police and protesters. Since its return to China in 1997, Hong Kong has been governed autonomously by its own constitution. The seven million Hong Kong residents are under China's sovereignty, but, unlike the people of the Communist People's Republic, they enjoy more rights such as freedom of expression and assembly, which they now fear.