Hong Kong police on Sunday permitted a small protest march under tight restrictions in one of the first demonstrations to be approved since the enactment of a sweeping national security law in 2020.
Several dozen demonstrators were required to wear numbered lanyards and were barred from wearing masks, as police monitored their march against a proposed land reclamation and rubbish processing project.
“We need to have a more free-spirited protest culture,” said James Ockenden, 49, who was marching with his three children. It said it would “respect the right to freedom of expression” and would study the possibility reducing the scale of the land reclamation. Organisers said up to 50 people took part in the first protest to be authorised by the city's police for several years. They later told media that around 80 people joined Sunday's protest.
Some Western governments have criticised the law as a tool of repression but Chinese authorities say it has restored stability to the financial hub.
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