Hong Kong protests continue as property developers urge calm
Demonstrations continued at Hong Kong’s airport on Friday as protesters waved banners and handed out leaflets in multiple languages to visitors at the arrivals hall.
Hundreds of young people turned out in support, wearing black T-shirts, and warned of a weekend of planned protests across the city.
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“Please forgive us for the ‘unexpected’ Hong Kong,” the English leaflets read. “You’ve arrived in a broken, torn-apart city, not the one you have once pictured. Yet for this Hong Kong, we fight.”
The financial hub has been torn into conflict in recent months, initially in response to a law allowing suspects to be extradited to China for trial, which has since been suspended.
However it is now grown to demands for greater democracy, the resignation of Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam and keeping out mainland tourists.
Friday also saw the city’s property developers speak out for the first time as they urged calm following a dent to their earnings.
“The Hong Kong community has been suffering from the acts of violence perpetrated by a small group of individuals lately,” a statement signed by 17 developers read.
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“Such acts have deviated from the original intent of the peaceful demonstrations and are bringing distress to the business community and the general public as a whole,” it continued.
No police were present on Friday, although Hong Kong has recalled a retired police commander who oversaw the response to pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014 to help manage the situation.