A pro-democracy march that drew thousands of people in Hong Kong has ended in clashes with police after Beijing announced it was reviewing a case that could see two pro-democracy lawmakers banned from taking their seats in Hong Kong’s parliament.



Recent weeks have seen the semi-autonomous city thrown into a fresh round of political chaos, two years after the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement occupied key roads and thoroughfares with tent protests, as a younger generation of activists faces off against Beijing loyalists.

The dispute in Hong Kong centres on a provocative display of anti-China sentiment by two pro-independence MPs, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, at their swearing-in ceremony last month.



The two refused to declare their allegiance to China and carried blue flags that read: “Hong Kong is not China.”

After the ceremony, Hong Kong’s government moved to bar the duo from the legislature by court order, before the standing committee of China’s rubberstamp legislature announced it would rule on the matter. Under the agreement that saw the UK hand Hong Kong to China in 1997, Beijing has the final say over interpreting the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.

Organisers said Sunday’s protest had about 13,000 people at its peak, snaking through the city’s financial centre before fragmenting into two groups. Protesters clashed with police, with some being taken away and pepper spray deployed against the crowd.

Around 500 people blocked traffic on one of the city’s main thoroughfares, where buses and trams sat empty and another

Another group of several hundred continued to march to the liaison office, the Chinese government’s main presence in the city and a frequent target of protests against Beijing.

About 1,000 listened to speeches by pro-democracy organisers in front of Hong Kong’s court of final appeal, a building still adorned with a stone carving of the UK coat of arms.



“This is an important stand to show we won’t accept the Chinese government interfering in Hong Kong,” Lee Cheuk-yan, a former pro-democracy lawmaker and longtime activist, said. “We want the people to stay here, peacefully, so our voices can be heard.”

Pro-China supporters shout at pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong. Photograph: Alex Hofford/EPA

The march otherwise bore the hallmarks of Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in recent years: orderly and polite citizens of all ages in an almost carnival-like atmosphere. The crowd was varied, from parents with children in tow to students and a sizeable number of retired people.



“This is not about independence – everyone knows this is not possible – this is about maintaining our way of life,” Kwok Wai-chung, 71, said. “The Chinese in Hong Kong came here for a better life. We don’t want to go backwards.”

While many in the march did not support Hong Kong becoming independent from China, no one wanted Beijing to interfere in what they saw as a matter for the city and its courts.

“I don’t support the two who said we should be independent, but I support their right to say whatever they want,” said Lucy Lau, 25, a graphic designer. “They should be in the legislature. This is a free society. Debate and different views must be respected.”

About 30 people corralled on one street corner staged a counter-demonstration in support of Beijing, soliciting a wave of profanities from the pro-democracy camp as they walked past.

For some bystanders, the march was a crash course in the right to assemble. As the protest passed a shopping centre popular with mainland tourists, many looked on with a sense of wonder.

“I think it’s good. There’s still a little freedom left in Hong Kong,” said 30-year-old Pita Guo, a homemaker from neighbouring Shenzhen on a shopping trip, as she watched the stream of protesters from a footbridge. “We could never have anything like this at home, but of course I don’t support Hong Kong independence, and those two should be removed.”

Beijing will be likely to use the matter to send a strong message against separatism, with the legislative panel saying the pair’s words and actions “posed a grave threat to national sovereignty and security”, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Sixtus and Yau could be disqualified from office, a result seen as favourable by the ruling Communist party but likely to be deeply unpopular in Hong Kong’s legal and pro-democracy circles.