HKSAR police arrest 53 protesters for unlawful assembly in Mongkok

Police in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) arrested 53 people, including 41 men and 12 women, for unlawful assembly near Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mongkok on Sunday.

The demonstrators were moving along Nathan Road from Jordan to Mongkok, and some had occupied roads, chanted slogans and behaved in a disorderly manner. Despite repeated warnings by law enforcers, some protesters refused to leave in Mongkok, the police statement said.

Police officers used pepper spray to stop the illegal acts in the vicinity of Dundas Street and made arrests, according to the statement, which added that public order has been restored in the area.

The proposed national security law has raised concerns among Hong Kong democracy activists and some foreign governments that Beijing is further eroding the extensive autonomy promised when Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997.

"The governments wants to shut us up and to kick us out," one protester, Roy Chan, 44, said. "We must stand up and strike down all those people who deprive Hong Kong people’s freedom."

Sunday's event came a day after Hong Kong police refused permission for an annual march usually held on July 1 to mark the 1997 handover, citing a ban on large gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.

China has said the new security law will target only a small group of troublemakers as it tackles separatism, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong.

China's National People's Congress Standing Committee reviewed a draft of the bill on Sunday.

Chinese state media reported that lawmakers overwhelmingly supported the draft. The Chinese government has "unshakable determination to push ahead with enactment of the security bill and safeguard national sovereignty and interest," state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing a government spokesperson.