Joining hands and singing songs, tens of thousands of demonstrators lined Hong Kong’s pavements, overpasses, waterfronts and parks, and scaled one of its most famous peaks, picking out the outline of Lion Rock with the light of waving cellphones.
On 23 August 1989, around 2 million protesters formed a human chain stretching 370 miles (600 kilometres) across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, a show of defiance against Moscow that became known as the Baltic Way. Within a year, the three countries would all be independent. The symbolism is unlikely to be lost on authorities in Beijing.
People light up mobile phones on top of Lion Rock. Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
Eleven weeks into the city’s most widespread protest movement since the handover from British colonial rule in 1997, China has already accused demonstrators of terrorism, working with foreign powers and fomenting a “colour revolution” against Chinese rule.
Friday night’s protest was unauthorised but peaceful. Violence and police brutality have occurred at several smaller protests that had been denied official permits, but there have been no incidents at larger marches, which drew crowds of up to 2 million.
For Friday’s “Hong Kong Way” demonstration, organisers had called for people to gather in single file along routes that roughly matched subway lines, snaking nearly 30 miles (45 kilometres) through Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories.
