Hong Kong police on Thursday arrested 14 people in a mall during a “shopping protest” against China’s impending national security law tailor-made for the city, according to the media report.
Nine males and five females aged 14 to 55, were arrested on Thursday evening for illegal assembly, police said, after protesters marched around the Yoho Mall shopping centre in Yuen Long chanting slogans, which caused customers to flee and stores to close on what was a public holiday, reports the South China Morning Post.
Last Wednesday, China’s planned national security law for Hong Kong could allow for extraditions to the mainland.
The officers then fired pepper spray to keep the group at bay.
Riot police quickly arrived to provide back up and also used pepper spray.
The EU also reiterated that it considered Hong Kong and human rights in China “non-negotiable” and, after reviewing some specific cases with the Chinese leaders.
The semi-autonomous business hub has been convulsed by a year of huge and often violent rallies that began with an eventually aborted criminal extradition bill but morphed into a popular call for democracy and police accountability.
The security law has faced criticism from western countries, especially the United States and Britain. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had described China’s announcement to tighten its control over Hong Kong as unilateral, arbitrary and disastrous, saying the former British colony no longer qualifies to be considered as autonomous under mainland China.
Hong Kong has been gripped for several years by political unrest and demonstrations, which had been gaining momentum in the months leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, which led to them being suspended.