Hong Kong teens keep protests alive as school year starts
Secondary students in Hong Kong yesterday supplemented their formal white uniforms with gas masks, goggles and hard hats as they planned to strike in a show of continued commitment to a fiery antigovernment protest movement.
The semiautonomous Chinese territory has been rocked by nearly three months of pro-democracy protests calling for electoral reforms and an independent inquiry into police conduct.
The youth-dominated demonstrations were to be tested on the first day of the school year with many protesters expected to go back to school following the summer break. A strike was scheduled for last night (NZT) for student protesters to skip classes and congregate at a public square in central Hong Kong.
At St Francis’ Canossian College, a girls’ school, uniformed students kneeled in a line and held up handpainted signs that read: “The five major demands: Not one is dispensable.” The protesters’ demands include dropping charges against demonstrators who have been arrested and formally withdrawing an extradition bill that would allow Hong Kong residents to be sent to mainland China to stand trial.
Some demonstrators disrupted the morning commute by blocking train doors, attempting to evade riot police who were hot on their heels by moving quickly between multiple public transit stations.
Protesters blocked roads near Hong Kong's airport with burning barricades and damaged a train station on Sunday after a night of clashes with police. The protesters accuse Beijing and the Government of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam of eroding the autonomy and civil liberties promised when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.