Hong Kong police have allowed a small protest march under tight restrictions in one of the first demonstrations to be approved since the enactment of a sweeping national security law in 2020.
A number of demonstrators were ordered to wear numbered lanyards and be banned from wearing masks as police watched their march against a proposed land reclamation and rubbish processing project.
Participants chanted slogans against the reclamation project as they marched in the rain with banners in the eastern Tseung Kwan O district, where the project is scheduled to be built.
According to a seven-sided letter from police to the organizers, a maximum of 100 participants were criticised by some demonstrators, according to a seven-sided letter from police to the organisers.
James Ockenden, 49, who was marching with his three children, said we need to have a more free-spirited protest culture. This is all pre-arranged and numbered and it will destroy the culture and put people off from coming for sure. Responding to the protest, the city's Development Bureau said the project was intended to support the daily needs of the community. It said that it would respect the right to freedom of expression and would study the possibility of reducing the scale of the land reclamation.
The police gave the organisers no objection letter on condition that they ensured that the protest would not violate national security laws, including seditious displays or speech.
Some lawbreakers may join the public meeting and procession to disrupt public order or even engage in illegal violence, the police warned in their letter.
Up to 80 people took part in the protest, according to the organizers.
Applications for other protests, including a candlelight vigil on June 4 to commemorate the victims of China's Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, have been denied on Covid related health grounds.
The last of Hong Kong's Covid restrictions was scrapped this year after China decided to end its zero-Covid policies.
The Basic Law of Hong Kong guarantees the right to public assembly. Since the enactment of a national security law in June 2020 in response to protracted pro-democracy protests in 2019 the authorities have clamped down on freedoms and arrested scores of opposition politicians and activists.
Some western governments have criticised the law as a tool of repression, but Chinese authorities say it has restored stability to the financial hub.
One protester said she appreciated the chance to protest in difficult times and said she saw the lanyards more as a means to facilitate crowd management.
It doesn't mean putting a leash on us to restrict our expression. She said she thinks it is acceptable.
Political observers and some western diplomats are watching to see if authorities will allow a resumption of major demonstrations, which had once been a mainstay of the city's vibrant civil society scene and attracted thousands of people.