Hong Kong metro partially reopens after a weekend of violent protests

International News

Hong Kong's rail operator reopened part of its metro system on Sunday after an unprecedented shutdown, but kept many typically busy stations closed, as the Chinese-ruled city braces for large demonstrations expected later in the day.
Participants in two major protests, one on the island and another on the Kowloon peninsula, are expected to defy a ban on face masks that took effect at midnight on Friday, hours after embattled leader Carrie Lam invoked emergency powers.Violent protests had erupted across the Asian financial centre soon after Lam wielded the colonial-era powers for the first time in more than 50 years to order the ban in hopes of curbing months of unrest.
The night's "extreme violence" justified the use of the emergency law, Beijing-backed Lam said on Saturday, when the city felt eerily quiet, with the subway and most shopping malls closed and many roads deserted.
Despite the closure of the metro, which carries about 5 million passengers a day, hundreds of anti-government protesters took to the streets, defying the ban on face masks, but had largely dispersed by evening.Hong Kong's protests have plunged the city into its biggest political crisis in decades, posing the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power.

 "These extreme radicals have rampant arrogance and behave vilely," China's representative Liaison Office in Hong Kong said on Sunday, denouncing Friday's destruction of one of its buildings by "extremist militants"."We strongly condemn this and support the SAR government and the police to severely punish illegal violent elements in accordance with the law," it said in a statement, referring to Hong Kong's status as a special autonomous region of China...Read More