Tens of thousands of Hong Kong protesters take message to mainland China

  • Video report by ITV News Reporter Chloe Keedy

Tens of thousands of protesters in Hong Kong targeted visitors from mainland China on Sunday as they marched to a high-speed rail station which connects to mainland destinations.

Many wore black shirts and carried British flags as a month-long protest showed no signs of abating.

Demonstrators streamed through a shopping district popular with mainland visitors, chanting "free Hong Kong" and words of encouragement to their fellow citizens.

They headed to West Kowloon station that connects the semi-autonomous Chinese territory to Guangdong and other mainland cities.

March organiser Ventus Lau said the purpose of the protest was to reiterate the protesters’ demands to the government and to give mainland visitors a firsthand look at their movement.

Organisers said 230,000 people marched on Sunday, while police estimated the crowd at 56,000.

Hong Kong has been riven by protests for the past month, sparked by proposed changes to extradition laws that would have allowed suspects to be sent to the mainland to face trial.

Leader Carrie Lam suspended the bill and apologised for how it was handled, but protesters want it to be formally withdrawn and for Lam to resign.

The march was the first protest since last Monday, when protesters smashed thick glass walls to break into the legislature's building and wreaked havoc inside, spray painting slogans on the walls, overturning furniture and damaging vote and fire prevention systems.

Protesters smashed the glass of the Legislative Council last Monday, as protests turned violent. Credit: AP

Organisers say they want to explain their cause to people from the mainland, where media coverage of the movement has been limited and focused largely on the damage to public property.

Ventus Lau, march organiser, said: "The information is rather blocked in mainland, we want to show them the true image and the message of Hong Kongers."

Many demonstrators carried British flags at the protest on Sunday. Credit: AP

Most of the protesters were young but the crowd also included older people carrying hand-held fans in the muggy heat, as well as parents with children, including some in baby strollers.

Many were carrying posters, including one that read "Extradite to China, disappear forever."

As the crowd broke up Sunday night, a few hundred remained and taunted police who had retreated behind huge barriers set up outside the railway station, while others moved to Canton Road, a street lined with luxury boutique stores.

Protesters climb over a barrier during a march in Hong Kong. Credit: AP

Police had put up large barricades blocking a main entrance to the station to prevent any attempt to enter it.

Only passengers with reservations would be allowed into the station, the mass transit authority said, and Hong Kong media reported that ticket sales had been suspended for afternoon trains.

"This is our fourth march because we think this government is not taking care of Hong Kong," said Dan Lee, who joined with his wife and their three children. "We need to save Hong Kong and we need to come out for our future generations."

"The high-speed railway station is a connection between Hong Kong and China and this is the nearest place we can spread our message to China," said Lau, the march organizer.

  • Why are people protesting in Hong Kong?

The proposed legislation, which the government has suspended indefinitely because of the protests, raised broader concerns about an erosion of freedoms and rights in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory in recent years.

Hong Kong was allowed to keep its own legal system for 50 years after Britain returned the then-colony to China in 1997, but many in the city fear that freedom of expression and other rights are under threat.

Protesters want the proposed extradition bill to be formally withdrawn. Credit: AP

The high-speed rail station, which opened last September, was a source of contention, as passengers pass through Chinese immigration and customs inside.

Some opposition politicians said the fact that Chinese law applies in the immigration area violates the agreement giving Hong Kong its own legal system.

The break-in last Monday at the legislature overshadowed a peaceful march the same day by hundreds of thousands of people also opposed to the extradition legislation.