The ban could fuel turnout at a two-day general strike called to start on Monday if the government didn’t concede to its major demands by Saturday, the SCMP said. It could also trigger further outcry as the rally was planned for the fifth anniversary of China’s introduction of an electoral reform package that would have restricted democratic freedoms and was later rejected by Hong Kong.
Hong Kong police said they couldn’t immediately comment on the ban.
The march had been planned to start at centrally located Chater Garden and continue on to China’s liaison office in the city, where Hong Kong’s police and Beijing have drawn their sharpest line after a previous demonstration saw protesters deface the national emblem. Hong Kong’s former leader Leung Chun-ying is promoting a website offering crowd-funded cash bounties to identify protesters who have perpetrated vandalism, including HK$1 million ($177,086) for the person who splashed black paint on the emblem.
The CHRF has organised three record-breaking peaceful marches over weeks of protests, including the June 9 rally against legislation easing extraditions to China that sparked what’s morphed into a broader movement against Beijing’s tightening grip over the city. The group said each march brought more than 1 million people onto the streets, while police estimates are lower, in the hundreds of thousands.
See also: Apple supplier Lens Tech said to price US$607 mil Hong Kong listing at top of range
Its latest march would come after a weekend that began with the formation of a peaceful human chain across the city and culminated two days later with police firing a weapon and using water cannons for the first time.
Officers fired tear gas, rubber bullets and bean bag rounds at protesters who threw bricks and petrol bombs in the Tsuen Wan area of the New Territories and charged police with metal poles. Police said 86 people were arrested for alleged offenses including unlawful assembly, possession of weapons and assaulting officers.
