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Friday April 26, 2024

HK protesters egg China office at end of massive rally

By AFP
July 22, 2019

HONG KONG: Masked protesters daubed the walls of China’s office in Hong Kong with eggs and graffiti on Sunday night following another massive rally, focusing anger towards the embodiment of Beijing’s rule with no end in sight to the turmoil engulfing the finance hub.

The city has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history by weeks of marches and sporadic violent confrontations between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.

The initial protests were lit by a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.

But they have since evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory. In recent weeks police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets -- and parliament was trashed by protesters -- as Beijing’s authority faces its most serious challenge since Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.