Students Rally Against Security Law In Tsim Sha Tsui

A small group of student activists chanted independence slogans and handed out pamphlets against a planned new national security law in Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday, as police watched closely but allowed the protesters to stage their rally.

The force had earlier banned a planned march, prompting the group to set up a street booth instead.

Members of Student Localism chanted protest slogans like “Hong Kong Independence, the only way out” and urged passersby to attend another march planned for June 16.

The small group of protesters also shouted abuse and chanted slogans at officers.

Cheung Sum-yi of Student Localism said it was unfair of the administration to continue using coronavirus social distancing rules to clamp down on protests, noting that even some primary school students have been allowed to go back to school.

“They use the Wuhan virus as the reason to give us the objection letter and they don’t allow us to have a peaceful protest which is very unreasonable,” she said

Another spokesman for the group, Chung Hon-lam, said dozens of police officers had asked them what they were doing there, requested them to take off their face masks and took photos of them.

He said an officer demanded to check his phone but he refused.

Another student group, Ideologist, also took part in the rally.

Spokesman Hins Tsang said students are keen to do all they can to oppose Beijing’s plans to impose a national security law on Hong Kong, and are helping with efforts to hold a referendum next Sunday on whether students and workers want to hold a general strike against the coming legislation.

“There is no other way for students [to oppose] the national security law as the government will not listen your voice if you are just going [to] school… We want to do this strike”, he said.

The government has strongly condemned the planned referendum, saying children were being misled into participating in a meaningless exercise that has no legal basis.