The number of protesters in the Causeway Bay district is stated to be a few hundred. The police shout in loudspeakers that the crowd is illegal and must be dispelled. Unless otherwise, it violates the pandemic rules of the city, which allows a maximum of eight people to gather.
The amount of protests is small compared to previously in Hong Kong, where the political contradictions in recent years have sometimes attracted hundreds of thousands on the streets. On the other hand, the corona pandemic has meant that street life has been reduced to a minimum in recent months.
The virus a factor
Regime critics argue that this is precisely why the bill comes now, when many are so afraid of the virus that they may not dare to protest.
"I think the Hong Kong people are very frustrated because we did not expect it to come so quickly and be so hard," 25-year-old protester Vincent said of the proposal.
- People may be criminalized just because they say or publish something that goes against the government.
When Britain surrendered its former Hong Kong colony to China in 1997, the Beijing regime promised "one country, two systems", which can roughly be described as allowing the city to enjoy democracy even though China is a dictatorship. But the Security Act is one of many recent signs that Beijing is taking on that promise more easily.