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At least 90 people have been arrested in protest at the Hong Kong authorities’ decision to postpone local elections, the Associated Press reported, citing a police statement and media reports.
The election was scheduled for today, but on July 31, Chief Administrator Carrie Lam postponed it for a year. She cited an increase in coronavirus cases, but critics said her Hong Kong government feared the opposition would win seats if the vote was scheduled.
Since last June, protests against the government have been held in the city almost every weekend. They started with a proposed extradition law and called for more democracy and criticism of Beijing’s efforts to tighten control over the former British colony.
A woman arrested in the Yau Ma Tei district of Kowloon has been charged with assaulting and spreading slogans for China’s secession, the police department said on Facebook, emphasizing that such calls were illegal under a recent national security law.
The Chinese Communist Party’s decision to impose the law in Hong Kong has sparked complaints that it violated the territory’s promised autonomy upon its return to China in 1997. Washington took away the commercial privileges granted to the city. Other governments have terminated contracts, including extradition, saying the territory of seven million people is no longer autonomous.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, taking hundreds of protesters away by truck. At least 90 people have been arrested, some on suspicion of illegal collection, police said.
Protesters in the Jordan neighborhood have put up a poster criticizing the postponement of the elections, the newspaper said. “I want my right to vote!” Said activist Leun Kuok-hun, also known as Long Hair. According to the publication, he was later arrested.
China
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