Thousands of pro-democracy protesters rallied Sunday (August 11th) in Hong Kong for the tenth weekend in a row, ready to brave once again a police ban by marching through the streets.
In the early afternoon, protesters gathered at Victoria Park where they plan to start a march that was not authorized by the police. "We are still here (...) and we will see if we want to walk later," said a 25-year-old protester who simply introduces herself under her name, Wong, to AFP.
Police authorized the rally in Victoria Park but not the planned march from there to the east of Hong Kong Island. Authorities also banned a second demonstration, which also began Sunday (August 11th) with several thousand participants in the Sham Shui Po labor district in Kowloon.
In the airport, the sit-in continues
Meanwhile, a few hundred protesters were pursuing a sit-in at the international airport for the third day in a row. They hope to rally to their cause the foreign visitors who arrive in Hong Kong.
Born out of the rejection of a controversial draft law by the pro-Beijing Hong Kong executive that wanted to allow extradition to China, the mobilization has since considerably broadened its demands with the central power of China in sight.
Read also: Towards a new Tiananmen in Hong Kong?
Pro-democracy activists demand the election of a successor to Carrie Lam, the head of the executive, by direct universal suffrage, and not his appointment by Beijing, as is currently the case. They also demand an investigation into the violence that they accuse the police and the outright abandonment of the controversial bill.
The territory of southern China, the international financial center, is experiencing its most serious political crisis since its retrocession by London in 1997, with almost daily events and often violent.