HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong cops fired tear gas and water cannon to distribute thousands of individuals who rallied on Sunday to object versus Beijing’s strategy to enforce nationwide security laws on the city.
In a return of the unrest that roiled Hong Kong in 2015, crowds thronged the Causeway Bay shopping area in defiance of curbs enforced to contain the coronavirus. Chants of “Hong Kong self-reliance, the only way out,” echoed through the streets.
To Communist Party leaders, calls for self-reliance for the semi-autonmous city are anathema and the proposed new national security framework worries Beijing’s intent “to avoid, stop and punish” such acts.
As dusk fell, cops and demonstrators took on in the night life district of Wan Chai.
The day’s occasions position a brand-new challenge to Beijing’s authority as it struggles to tame public opposition to its tightening grip over Hong Kong, a trade and company entrance for mainland China.
The security laws have also anxious financial markets and drawn a rebuke from foreign federal governments, human rights groups and some service lobbies.
” I am fretted that after the implementation of the nationwide security law, they will pursue those being charged in the past and the cops will be further out of control,” stated Twinnie, 16, a secondary school trainee who declined to provide her last name.
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