A crowded crowd of pro-democracy activists demonstrated on Sunday, Sept. 8, in front of the US Consulate in Hong Kong. Thousands of people have called on Washington to pressure Beijing after three months of protests.
The protesters had first gathered in a park before heading to the nearby US diplomatic representation, in front of which they marched slowly for hours.
In the crowd, symbolic umbrellas rubbed shoulders with American flags and placards calling on President Donald Trump to "free" Hong Kong. Some protesters were singing the American anthem and speeches and slogans called on the United States to pressure Beijing to help Hong Kong protect its freedoms.
"More than a thousand protesters have been arrested, we have no other means of action than to protest, I feel desperate," Jenny Chan, 30, told AFP.
"I think that apart from foreign countries, nobody can really help us," she added.
Clashes in the evening
As often, the demonstration went smoothly during the day, but in the evening there were clashes between the police and the hardest protesters, blocking streets, attacking metro stations and setting fire to the scene. to barricades.
Protesters' anger does not seem to have subsided four days after Hong Kong executive Carrie Lam's surprise announcement of the final withdrawal of the extradition bill, which set fire to the dust in June .
They consider this decision too late and above all insufficient in relation to their demands.
Meanwhile, one of the movement's leading figures, Joshua Wong, said he was arrested Sunday morning after returning from Taiwan for violating bail conditions.
It has been three months that Hong Kong is going through its worst political crisis since it was handed over to China in 1997, with almost daily protest actions, notably denouncing the decline in freedoms and Beijing's growing interference in the affairs of this semi-autonomous region. .
With AFP