Pro-democracy demonstrations are continuing in Hong Kong for a 10th straight weekend, despite the government’s refusal to issue permits for all but one of the marches.
The weekend rallies got an early start when activists decided to stage a three-day demonstration at the airport, beginning Friday.
There are citywide protests Saturday.
Families, many of them with strollers, joined the “Guard The Children” march Saturday. It was the only planned demonstration to have received a permit. A children’s alphabet leaflet was distributed, with A for “angry,” D for “demonstration” and P for “protest.”
“We have to tell children about the current situation in Hong Kong, and educate them about what the right kind of society is,” Faye Lai told the French news agency AFP. Lai attended the demonstration with her 3-year-old niece.
China has claimed the protests in Hong Kong are funded by the West, but has failed to produce evidence other than supportive statements about the demonstrations from some Western politicians.
“Hong Kong poses a serious problem for the Chinese government,” Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, told the Associated Press. “It can’t allow the protesters to challenge its authority or deface symbols of its authority unpunished, but it also does not want to attempt a military crackdown.”
The unrest was initially triggered in June by a planned bill that would have allowed suspects to be extradited to China to face trial.
The protests have since evolved into a movement for democratic reforms.
