Sun.Star Pampanga

Hong Kong protesters defy ban to march in shopping area

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Hthe bill, which would have allowed some criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial, but protesters have widened their demands to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountabi­lity.

There have been increasing clashes between protesters and Hong Kong’s police, who demonstrat­ors have accused of abuses. More than 1,300 people have been arrested since June.

The unrest has battered Hong Kong’s economy, which was already reeling from the U.S.-China trade war. It is also seen as an embarrassm­ent to China’s ruling Communist Party ahead of Oct. 1 National Day celebratio­ns.

Earlier Sunday, hundreds of protesters waved British flags, sang “God save the Queen” and chanted “U.K. save Hong Kong” outside the British Consulate as they stepped up calls for internatio­nal support for their campaign.

With banners declaring “one country, two systems is dead,” they repeated calls for Hong Kong’s former colonial ruler to ensure the city’s autonomy is upheld under agreements made when it ceded power to China in 1997.

Demonstrat­ors held similar rallies Sept.1 at the British facility and last weekend at the U.S. Consul at e.

Police also banned a planned Civil Human Rights Front march on Aug. 31, but protesters turned up anyway. Clashes erupted that night, with police storming a subway car and hitting passengers with batons and pepper spray. On Saturday, pro-democracy protesters and supporters of the central government in Beijing clashed at a shopping mall and several public places.

Police arrested more than a dozen people and hospital authoritie­s said 25 were injured.

The clashes amid the mid-autumn festival holiday came after several nights of peaceful rallies that featured protesters belting out a new protest song in mass singing at shopping malls.

Thousands of people also carried lanterns with pro-democracy messages in public areas and formed illuminate­d human chains on two of the city’s peaks on Friday night to mark the major Chinese festival.

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