HK protesters rehearse ‘anti-communist march’

Bloomberg

Thousands of people gathered in a square in Hong Kong’s city centre on Sunday for a peaceful rally under the watchful gaze of riot police who kept their distance from the event while patrolling the area.
The authorised meeting was held by Hong Kong Civil Assembly Team, which described it as a “pre-march assembly” for a rally scheduled for next Sunday that is billed as a “universal siege on communists.” Next week’s event will call on the international community to sanction the Hong Kong government for not responding
to protesters’ demands, organisers said.
The often-violent unrest started seven months ago after the government proposed a law allowing extraditions to jurisdictions including mainland China. Although the extradition bill has since been withdrawn, protesters’ demands have broadened and are now focussed on a call for greater democracy, with increasing anti-Beijing sentiment.
“It’s become impossible for the movement to stay peaceful. People of Hong Kong are braver now — we are awake to what the police and government are doing,” said one of Sunday’s protesters. “They are the ones who showed us being peaceful does nothing, that we were sleeping and dreaming that things might change.”