Hong Kong’s No 2 official defends decision to limit access to ‘Civic Square’ where protests are allowed only on specific days
Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung cites need to keep order, but 10 opposition party members later stage protest at site outside government headquarters
Hong Kong’s No 2 official on Thursday defended the government’s decision to restrict demonstrations at a popular protest site outside its headquarters, even as it reopened the area known as “Civic Square” to the public after a three-year closure.
But Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung’s words went unheeded, as about 10 opposition members from the Labour Party marched into the Admiralty site at noon on Thursday. They ignored the announcement that permits to hold demonstrations there would only be granted for Sundays or public holidays.
Access to the area, officially known as the East Wing Forecourt, was tightened in July 2014 when a three-metre-high fence was erected. It was prompted by an incident a month earlier, where dozens of people stormed the neighbouring Legislative Council complex to protest the government’s development plan for the northeastern New Territories.
