Hong Kong protesters keep heat on Chief Executive Carrie Lam as pressure intensifies

HONG KONG: Hong Kong demonstrators gathered for another weekend of protests with a growing list of grievances, maintaining pressure on Chief Executive Carrie Lam who was reported to have offered her resignation several times in recent weeks to her political masters in Beijing.

Rally organisers said 110,000 people marched in the district of Sha Tin, a popular destination for visitors from mainland China, Radio Television Hong Kong reported. Police estimated the crowd at 28,000.

They earlier deployed pepper spray at a small group of protesters who tried to breach a defense line.


Hong Kong demonstrators have rallied every week since mid-June, garnering global attention for the unprecedented size of the crowds, and as some turned violent. The Financial Times, citing two people familiar with the matter, said Sunday that the Chinese government refused to accept Lam's offers to step down. One of them said Beijing insisted that she remain in office to fix “the mess she created”.

On Saturday, scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators after a rally against parallel traders ended in Sheung Shui, near the China border.

More than 30,000 people took part in the largely peaceful march, according to North District Parallel Imports Concern Group convenor Ronald Leung. Police estimated the turnout at 4,000.

Lam last week declared that the controversial draft legislation that would allow extraditions to the mainland was “dead”.