Hong Kong protest marks anniversary

HONG KONG — Thousands of people across Hong Kong sang protest songs and marched on Friday to mark the one-year anniversary of a clash with police outside the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s legislature.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in the popular Causeway Bay and Mongkok shopping districts and in the Sha Tin shopping mall in the New Territories in the evening. In Causeway Bay, they held signs reading “Heaven will destroy the CCP,” referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Riot police stood on standby as protesters shouted slogans and sang the protest anthem “Glory to Hong Kong.” In Mongkok and Causeway Bay, police raised a blue flag, warning that the gatherings were unlawful and force might be used to disperse the participants. Groups of protesters were detained and searched in Mongkok; in Causeway Bay, police used pepper spray and arrested a number of protesters, including pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui.

Police said 35 people were arrested for a variety of offenses, including unlawful assembly and possession of weapons.

Earlier, more than 100 people joined a lunchtime protest in a luxury shopping mall in the Admiralty business district. They held flags reading “Hong Kong independence” and laid out a large banner reading, “The people fear not death, why threaten them with it?”

The protesters were commemorating a demonstration last year in which tens of thousands of protesters surrounded the legislative building, delaying the start of debate on an extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters in one of the first violent clashes in what would become a monthslong push for greater democracy.