HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam warned on Tuesday that the Chinese-ruled city cannot afford further “chaos” as activists marked a year of pro-democracy rallies with lunchtime protests in several shopping malls.
FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, wearing a face mask following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, holds a news conference in Beijing, China, June 3, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
The global financial hub is on alert for unrest with larger gatherings planned for the evening to mark the first anniversary of a mass rally that galvanised the anti-government protest movement.
That demonstration, which drew an estimated more than one million protesters in a city of 7.5 million, was triggered by proposed legislation to allow extraditions to mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the Communist Party.
Lam later withdrew the bill but widespread concern lingered that Beijing was stifling freedoms in the former British colony which returned to China in 1997 with the promise of a high level of autonomy, sparking months of often-violent unrest.
“All of us can see the difficulty we have been through in the past year, and due to such