Hong Kong protests move to suburb

Large-scale demonstrations reportedly extended to a Hong Kong suburb, even after the island’s leader said a controversial extradition bill was “dead.”

Demonstrators on Sunday again took to the streets, calling for the bill’s formal withdrawal and protesting against what they see as the erosion of Hong Kong’s independence from Beijing, Reuters reported.

{mosads}“These days there is really no trust of China, and so the protesters come out,” Jennie Kwan, 73, told the news service.

“Didn’t they promise 50 years, no change? And yet we’ve all seen the changes. I myself am already 70-something years old. What do I know about politics? But politics comes to you.”

Organizers put the number of demonstrators on Sunday at about 115,000, while police said it was closer to 28,000.

Skirmishes broke out amid the demonstration as protestors threw umbrellas and plastic bottles at police, who responded by firing pepper spray, according to the news service.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said last week that the bill, which would have allowed for the extradition of some Hong Kong residents to the Chinese mainland, was “dead” after weeks of protests estimated to have included millions of people at certain points.

However, protest organizers vowed to continue their demonstrations, demanding both Lam’s resignation and for an independent probe into heavy-handed police tactics used to quell the protests.

Protesters are also demanding the government retract its designation of earlier protests as riots and the unconditional release of demonstrators arrested earlier, according to Reuters.