- Asia: The political crisis unleashes an "economic tsunami" in Hong Kong
- Hong Kong: The crisis divides its population: "Protesters are beasts, terrorists"
According to the alleged organization chart of the popular raid spread anonymously by Chinese social networks, in the opposition concentration this Sunday most of the leaders who Beijing believes are encouraging protests were personified.
In the center of Victoria Park were Jimmy Lai, Martin Lee and Albert Ho, who with some irony declined to assume the role that Chinese propaganda gives them.
"Let's say there are two parallel roads to the top of the mountain of democracy. We veterans have been fighting for it for 35 years and have always ignored us . Young people prefer to take the riskiest route, but they have already managed to stop the law of extradition, "said Lee, nicknamed the" father of democracy "in Hong Kong, when the emblematic space of the metropolis was already hosting a huge crowd.
Alberto Ho agreed with his running partner, while emphasizing the importance of " staying out of violence , which will not provide us with a solution." "That is why we came here this Sunday to tell the young people that it is in a long-running fight . We will not be able to tear down the system in two days. We have to be patient and continue to resist with non-violent methods," he added.
The presence of the old generation of activists defending democracy in the protest that took place in Hong Kong is a endorsement for the movement of opposition to the local government supported by Beijing, after the controversy that has raised the appeal of a minority to such actions controversies such as the recent airport blockade.
Hundreds of thousands of people attended on this day a nth call that confirmed that the political crisis in the former British colony is far from over despite repeated incidents and the increasingly explicit threats of Chinese power.
Jimmy Lai
"They are trying their best to scare us but they won't get it"
"The thing about Shenzhen (the deployment of Chinese paramilitary forces in the nearby city) is part of a show designed to intimidate us . They are doing everything possible to frighten us but they will not succeed," said Jimmy Lai.
Lai's allusion could not be more pertinent. Hours earlier, the Global Times newspaper - one of the most active propaganda platforms in the country - released a video of some new maneuvers of the nearly 12,000 paramilitary police who have concentrated on the said city of Shenzhen where they were seen exercising for dissolve a hypothetical protest with tear gas and vehicles equipped with water cannons under pressure.
"Stop the violence and repent!" One of the officers in Cantonese was heard saying, the local language of Hong Kong.
This is the third time in recent weeks in which the Chinese authorities allow to visualize the training of this contingent , a significant gesture that has accompanied the multiplication of opinions of supposed experts that justify an intervention of their forces in Hong Kong.
The organizers of the Sunday march, the Democratic Front of Human Rights (FDDH), once again criticized the actions of the Hong Kong security forces. Some kids were carrying signs that read: "You can take my eye off, but you will not be able to silence my voice", in reference to one of the victims of the police action , who has partially lost his vision when he was hit by a projectile of the uniformed .
"For the past two months, the Hong Kong people have endured enough humiliations at the hands of the Hong Kong government and police. We have stopped the extradition law but the police are carrying out a Chinese-style repression," the FDDH said in a statement.
"Show the police how many we are!" One of the broadcasters cried as the human avalanche continued to reach the enclave.
As on other occasions, the participants came from all strata and ages present in the local society. From the young woman who was walking smiling with a curious backpack on her back where her parrot was also traveling, to whole families with babies in carriages , grandmothers in wheelchairs or - also - cliques of the same militants equipped with helmets and masks that have starred in the Last altercations
Not even the persistent rain suffered by the village after mid-afternoon managed to dissolve the crowd. For hours and hours, participants collapsed the streets around Victoria Park and thousands of people were blocked for hours in meters and shopping centers. Some had to be evacuated by health services.
The present march joins the great mobilizations of June 9 and 16 , which brought together more than one million people, according to the organizers.
"We are not going to leave"
"If Beijing's tactic was to let our movement die little by little, they are wrong, we are not going to leave, " said Bonnie Leung, one of the spokespersons for the organization that called the meeting, the Democratic Front for Human Rights.
In the middle of the afternoon, the participants began to march towards the local financial heart, challenging the security forces that had demanded that the call be limited to Victoria Park. Around 5 in the afternoon, the first groups reached Charter Garden, the same place they had required to conclude their mobilization and where they were forbidden to access.
There, politicians such as Lee Cheuy-Yan asked attendees to return to their homes after arguing that the huge public attendance at this event is a "slap in the face" for Carrie Lam , the head of Beijing's local allied government, and proves that the "hongkoneses are not afraid of the chinese army".
The Global Times turned to twitter - a banned application in mainland China - to define the act as an "illegal march . " The official Chinese media have been even more vocal than the Communist Party government in demanding a forceful action by the Hong Kong police against activists who have come to equate "terrorists."
In this sense, the official agency Xinhua today turned to a whole panoply of epithets to define the opponents that the same were "fanatics", that "extremists", a "mob" or promoters of a "wild behavior ".
The clashes of police and young opponents have become a constant in recent weeks, where agents have arrested more than 700 people .
On this occasion, however, the Hong Kong uniforms decided to limit their presence to the environment of the Beijing Liaison Office, the official representation of the Communist Party government, which was the objective of the activists on July 21.
At nightfall, when many of the participants began to retire to their homes, opponents such as Anthony Cheung, a 21-year-old kid, thought that the peaceful development of the mobilization was a "moral victory" for their "revolution."
"We have shown that if the police leave us alone, we are not violent . It is they who have resorted to brutal repression," said the boy.
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