"Umbrellas march" in Hong Kong: a crowd protested after threats from China

Tens of thousands of people began parading Sunday in Hong Kong during a "peaceful" demonstration to show that the pro-democracy movement remains popular despite Beijing's growing violence and intervention threats.

To tackle the "terrorism" accusations made by the Chinese central government, the Human Rights Front (FCDH), a non-violent organization responsible for the June and July rallies in which hundreds of thousands of people, appealed to the government. protest "rational and non-violent".

In the pouring rain, tens of thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park, in the heart of the island. Many protesters then began walking towards the Admiralty district, further west, defying the police's ban on bringing the demonstration out of the park.

The slogan was, once again, denouncing police violence. "The way the police have managed everything is totally out of place," a protester, James Leung, told AFP.

Others have acknowledged an increase in violence among competitors who, in their most radical version, do not hesitate to throw stones and Molotov badtails. "Some have an extreme way of expressing their views," admitted 30-year-old Ray Cheng.

"I am against violence," said Wong, 54. "But even radicals only break the glbad, they do not hurt anyone, while the police leave injured," he said.

The police approved this demonstration in a large park of British excolony, but forbidden protesters parading through the streets of the city. This type of ban has been almost systematically ignored by protesters in recent weeks, resulting in clashes with security forces.

The authorities justify their decision by more and more recurrent acts of violence, for example against police stations. The protest movement does not yield, despite the detention of more than 700 people during more than two months of demonstrations.

Born in June to reject a controversial draft law authorizing extraditions to China, the mobilization extended since then its claims for example, to ask for a real universal suffrage, in the fear of a growing intrusion of China.

This is the worst political crisis in British excolonia since its handover to China in 1997. Beijing has set the tone by calling the most violent actions of protesters "quasi-terrorists".

Saturday's protests began with a march of thousands of teachers in a torrential downpour to support the pro-democracy movement, largely driven by young activists.

In the afternoon, a larger crowd gathered to travel to Hung Hom and To Kwa Wan, two popular port neighborhoods frequented by mainland Chinese tourists.

Some protesters went to the offices of the Federation of Trade Unions, a pro-Beijing organization. There, they painted graffiti on the facade of the building and shelled it with eggs.

"The government has not yet responded to a single complaint and has intensified police pressure to crack down on the population," said a 25-year-old protester who said his name was March. "If we do not go out, our future, our next generation will face more repression," he added.

Activists from pure-hard democracy have challenged the police in the Mong Kok district of the New Territories (north), where several clashes have taken place in recent weeks.

They blocked routes and directed their laser beams at the riot police who charged them, dispersing the protesters.
By nightfall, most activists, claiming to have reserved their energy for Sunday's march, withdrew.

In a sample of the division that exists in the city, thousands of government supporters also gathered Saturday afternoon in a park to criticize the pro-democracy movement and support the police.

"Their actions are not human, they have become monsters," said Irene Man, a 60-year-old retiree who supports the government.