Hong Kong and Chinese officials are engaging in sweeping curbs on dissent and political opposition, a U.K. government report said this week, as European Union officials joined a chorus of international criticism over a draconian national security law
Hundreds of activists and ordinary citizens in Hong Kong marked the first anniversary of the city’s anti-government movement by staging protests across the Asian financial hub on Tuesday. On June 9 last year, about one million Hong Kongers staged a peaceful protest against a proposed extradition law that would allow individuals to be sent to China for trial. The government at the time insisted on pressing ahead with the law, prompting more people to take to the streets in a series of mass protests that plunged the former British colony into one of the deepest crises in its history
A lot of police officers would humiliate and curse out arrested protesters during the anti-extradition movement. When they got you back to the police station they would do everything they could to make it harder for us. For example, it was very hot in the police station and there was a long wait to go to the bathroom.
What began as protests over a proposed extradition law – meaning Hong Kongers could face trial in China’s Communist Party-controlled courts unleashed years of pent-up frustrations over creeping control by Beijing and an intentional erosion of Cantonese culture
Siu Lam, 20, has been involved in the Hong Kong protest movement since June, when a million people took to the streets to oppose plans to allow extradition to mainland China