Hong Kong leader holds town hall as protesters chant slogans

Scores of protesters chanted slogans outside a stium in Hong Kong where embattled city leer Carrie Lam held a town hall session on Thursday aimed at cooling down months of demonstrations for greater democracy in semi-automous Chinese territory. community dialogue with 150 participants, selected randomly from over 20,000 applicants, was first since massive protests began in June sparked by an extrition bill that government has w promised to withdraw.
Protesters have refused to stop demonstrating until or demands including direct elections for city’s leers and police accountability are met.

Riot police

Riot police carried equipment including shields, pepper spray and tear gas canisters into Queen Elizabeth Stium in Wan Chai area. Authorities also set up X-ray machines and metal detectors to ensure participants did t bring banned items inside such as umbrellas, helmets and gas masks gear used by protesters.

security measures came as hundreds of students and ors formed human chains at ros near stium, chanting slogans expressing ir demands. Some protesters later marched outside stium and continued chanting slogans as dialogue began. In her opening remarks, Lam expressed hope that two-hour dialogue would help bring change for a better Hong Kong. session, brocast live, was first in a series of dialogues toward reconciliation, she said. Critics called dialogue a political show to appease protesters before major rallies planned this weekend ahe of China’s National Day celebrations on Oct. 1.

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't a PR show'

“This is t just a PR show but aimed to bring change” so Hong Kong can be a better country, Lam said. She said dialogue was to identify deep-seated ecomic and social problems that contributed to protests, w entering fourth month. protests have turned increasingly violent in recent weeks as demonstrators lobbed gasoline bombs at government buildings, vandalized public facilities and set street fires, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water canns. More than 1,500 people, including children as young as 12, have been detained.

extrition bill, which would have allowed some criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial, is viewed by many as an example of growing Chinese interference in city’s automy under “one country, two systems” framework introduced when former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Many protesters say dialogue is meaningless if government refuses to accept ir remaining demands.

“To Hong Kong people, it’s a joke,” said Bonnie Leung of Civil Human Rights Front, which has organized several massive rallies. “If she really wants to communicate with Hong Kong people, all she has to do is to open her door, we are right outside.”

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Chaotic garings

Front has received police approval for a rally on Saturday and has applied for ar major march on October 1. Police banned last two rallies planned by group, but protesters turned up anyway and peaceful garings later degenerated into chaos. China has accused U.S. and or foreign powers of being behind riots. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang warned on Thursday warned U.S. Congress to halt work on a bill that proposes ecomic sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials found to have suppressed democracy in Hong Kong.

foreign affairs committees of House of Representatives and Senate approved Hong Kong Human Rights Acts on Wednesday, setting st for votes in both chambers. Geng said at a daily briefing in Beijing that move was an endorsement of Hong Kong’s rical forces, and accused Washington of seeking to “mess up Hong Kong and contain China’s development. We will forcefully fight back against any U.S. attempt to harm China’s interests,” he said.

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