Thousands of people in Hong Kong once again protested against police brutality and a controversial extradition law this weekend. The protesters widened their protests. And China Governor Carrie Lam is said to have offered her resignation.
Recent protests in the Chinese Special Administrative Region (PCA) have seen violent clashes between police and protesters. In the sweltering heat, protesters marched in Sha Tin, a city between Hong Kong Island and the border with China.
They extended their protests from the financial district in the city center to the suburbs.
In Sha Tin, people on Sunday demanded that Prime Minister Lam not only suspend the controversial law on extradition to China, but formally withdraw it.
The law is controversial because China’s judiciary is not independent and serves as a tool of political persecution. Also, critics warn against torture and ill-treatment in China.
„There is really no confidence in China at the moment. That’s why people are protesting, „says 73-year-old Jennie Kwan. „Did not you promise 50 years after the transfer of the British colony to China, not to change anything? And we have seen all the changes. “
Demo against police violence in the center
In downtown Hong Kong, hundreds of people joined a demonstration of journalists protesting against police violence on Sunday. Media workers accuse police officers of mistreating them while reporting on the protests of recent months.
Previously, there had already been protests and clashes between police and demonstrators on Saturday. The police went with batons and pepper spray. Thousands of people had previously protested against Chinese traders in Sheung Shui near the border with China. Resistance to the suspended law on deliveries to China was also voiced.
Beijing wants Lam to put an end to the mess
Lam has repeatedly offered to resign, according to a report by the Financial Times over the past few weeks. Her resignation is one of the main demands of the demonstrators. Beijing did not allow Lam to resign. The Chinese leadership insisted that Lam „clean up the mess that it caused itself.“ „Nobody else can do that – and nobody wants this job,“ the financial newspaper quoted unnamed representatives from the Hong Kong government.
The former British Crown Colony has been autonomously governed as a separate territory since its return in 1997 to China under the principle of „one country, two systems“. Unlike the people of the People’s Republic, the Hong Kong people enjoy the right to freedom of expression, freedom of the press and assembly under the Constitution for the Chinese Special Administrative Region.
