Demonstration in Hong Kong: Pressure on Carrie Lam rises as public rejects apology | News from the world

Strikes and new demonstrations were expected in Hong Kong on Monday, after protesters rejected the apology of leader Carrie Lam following a protest that allegedly saw about two million people invading the streets for the first time. Oppose the controversial draft law on extradition.

After the huge protest – probably the biggest demonstration in Hong Kong since his return to China by Britain in 1997 – Lam apologizes for the way the government handled the bill, but it stops before withdrawing the bill or resigning. Some protestors.

Lam defended the unpopular bill, which would allow citizens to be sent to mainland China to be tried, but when the political crisis in the city was entering its second week, uncertainty grew as to to his political fate.

"His government can not be an effective government and will have many, many, many difficulties to pursue," legislator James To, a former Democratic Party legislator, told the government-funded broadcaster. "I believe the Central People's Government will accept his resignation."

Opposition politicians echoed protesters' calls for Lam and law enforcement.

"We can not accept his apology, it does not eliminate all our threats," said social worker Brian Chau, who was among several hundreds of protesters who spent the night in the Admiralty district, near the headquarters. government and the legislature.

On Monday morning, several hundred protesters refused requests from the police to clear the streets. A policewoman using a loudspeaker asked them to cooperate, the officers lined up in several rows and facing them. A woman in black speaking on behalf of the protesters responded with her own microphone, saying that they were preventing anyone from going to work and would only leave when Lam came to hear them.

Sunday's protest took place after Lam indefinitely delayed the bill on Saturday during a spectacular run. The protest organizers demanded the total withdrawal of the bill and showed their anger at the way the police staged a protest on Wednesday, when more than 70 people were injured by rubber bullets and tear gas.

Some Sunday walkers waved placards saying, "Do not shoot, we are Hong Kongers."

"Suspend the law without canceling it, it's like holding a knife on someone's head and telling them," I will not kill you now ", but you can do it n & # 39; It does not matter when, "said Betty, an 18-year-old protester. who just finished school. "We are fighting for our freedom."

"Before this week, I had never participated in a protest," said Lau, 28. "But I'm a teacher and I realized that if I did not come, I would not be able to cope with my students. It's their future. Like many others, she was taken aback by the arrests of activists and did not want her full name printed.

Police, who have always given much lower estimates for political protests, said 338,000 people had gone to the "peak" of the protest on Sunday.

Organizers hoping to keep up the pressure on Lam have asked students and workers to strike Monday and the shops to remain closed. The government has announced that the Legislative Council will remain closed for the day.

Protesters will be encouraged by the release of prominent activist Joshua Wong, who was the face of the umbrella movement in 2014.

Critics say the extradition bill could threaten Hong Kong's rule of law and its international reputation as a financial hub for the Asia-Pacific region. Some Hong Kong magnates have already begun to transfer wealth offshore.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Donald Trump would raise the issue of human rights in Hong Kong at a possible meeting with President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Beijing. Japan this month.

Chinese censors have worked hard to erase or block the news of the latest round of protests – the biggest since the mob protest against the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 – fearing large public gatherings not inspire demonstrations on the continent.

On Monday, the state-run daily China Daily declared that foreign "interference" in Hong Kong's affairs was hypocritical and "ill-intentioned", and that Beijing would continue to support Lam despite calls for the resignation of the latter.

China's support for Lam will "not weaken, not in the face of street violence or the ill-intentioned actions of foreign governments," the paper said in an editorial.

In another editorial, the Global Times tabloid warned the US against using Hong Kong as a "currency of exchange" to impose compromises in trade negotiations. "The riots in Hong Kong will only consolidate Beijing's tough stance against Washington," he said.