Advertisement
Hong Kong protests: defiant university students, school pupils and residents go on strike, piling pressure on government to meet demands
- Action held as police announced that 1,117 people had been arrested since anti-government protests erupted in June
- Protesters had threatened to paralyse the railway network as part of ‘non-cooperative’ movement, but were deterred by police patrolling stations
Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Defiant university students, school pupils and Hongkongers from all walks of life went on a citywide strike on Monday, giving the embattled government an ultimatum to meet their demands or face escalated protest action.
Advertisement
On the first day of the new school year, students across the city skipped classes to attend rallies, ignoring top officials’ warnings and piling pressure on the government to meet the five key demands that protesters have been pushing for over 13 weeks of mass demonstrations.
They want Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to formally withdraw the now-abandoned extradition bill that first sparked the current crisis, set up a commission of inquiry to investigate police conduct in tackling the protests, grant amnesty to those who have been arrested, stop characterising the protests as riots, and restart the city’s stalled political reform process.
The strike was held as police announced that 1,117 people had been arrested since the anti-government protests erupted in June.
Police arrested four protesters on Monday morning at Lok Fu and Lai King stations for blocking platform screen doors to stop trains from leaving.
Advertisement
Protesters had threatened to paralyse the railway network as part of their “non-cooperative” movement, but were deterred by police patrolling stations.
Advertisement