HK GROUP BEHIND HUGE DEMOCRACY RALLIES DISBANDED

Hong Kong, Aug. 15: The Hong Kong protest coalition that organised record-breaking democracy rallies two years ago said Sunday it was disbanding in the face of China’s sweeping clampdown on dissent in the city.

The dissolution comes as China remoulds Hong Kong in its own authoritarian image and purges the city of any person or group deemed disloyal or unpatriotic.

The Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) was a major player in the months of democracy protests that convulsed Hong Kong in 2019.

But the group said Beijing’s subsequent crackdown on democracy supporters and a de facto ban on protests had left it with little future.

“All member groups have been suppressed and civil society is facing an unprecedented severe challenge,” the Civil Human Rights Front wrote in a statement announcing why it was disbanding.

Its remaining HK$1.6 million ($205,000) in assets would be donated to “appropriate groups”, the statement added.

The 2019 protests began in response to a deeply unpopular law that would have allowed extraditions from the semi-autonomous city to authoritarian mainland China. But they soon morphed into calls for greater democracy and police accountability after huge crowds were dispersed with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The CHRF, founded in 2002, espoused non-violence and routinely got crowds of hundreds of thousands strong onto the streets.

Some estimates said more than a million people marched at some rallies, in a city of 7.3 million residents. —

THE CHRF, founded in 2002, espoused nonviolence and routinely got crowds of hundreds of thousands strong onto the streets.