Police fire tear gas at Hong Kong protesters challenging face mask ban

Name: Police fire tear gas at Hong Kong protesters challenging face mask ban
Uploaded: 2019-10-31T16:44:35.954Z
Duration: 1 min 8 s
Channel: Financial Times
Description: The FT's Nicolle Liu and Sue-Lin Wong report from the city's Halloween night demonstrations

The FT's Nicolle Liu and Sue-Lin Wong report from the city where demonstrators used Halloween celebrations to challenge a ban on wearing masks at public gatherings. Instead of the usual pumpkins and skeleton costumes they wore masks of Chinese president Xi Jinping and chief executive Carrie Lam

October 31, 2019

Filmed by Nicolle Liu, edited by Jamie Han, additional footage by Reuters

Transcript

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At Hong Kong's Halloween celebrations this year face masks of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam replaced the usual pumpkins and skeletons. Halloween has long been a popular festival in this Asian financial hub, but this year the holiday has a new political significance. In an attempt to quell almost five months of protests, the government banned wearing masks in early October.

Hundreds of demonstrators wearing protest-themed mask and costumes participated in an unauthorised march through the city's financial district to a popular bar district before police fired tear gas. Around 200 protesters have been arrested so far for violating the anti-mask law. Hong Kong has plunged into its worst political crisis in decades, triggered by a now withdrawn controversial extradition bill.