China: Tens of thousands of people surrounded Hong Kong's legislature yesterday to denounce the government and its planned anti-subversion bill, cranking up pressure on the territory's embattled chief executive.
Organisers said about 50,000 people took part in the candlelit vigil, which ended peacefully after a few hours.
Dragging effigies of the unpopular Beijing-backed leader, some shouted: "Step down Tung Chee-hwa!" The demonstration came a week after half a million protesters took to the streets to condemn the bill in the city's biggest demonstration since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
A number of academics, politicians and rights activists made impassioned speeches denouncing Mr Tung's administration and calling for more democracy.
Widespread anger at Mr Tung over the security bill and his failure to revive the ailing economy have turned into Hong Kong's biggest political crisis in years.
Though he reluctantly agreed on Monday to postpone the bill for more public consultation, frustration with Mr Tung's leadership in the last six years has reached the boiling point.
Some of those gathered outside the legislative building are members of the Falun Gong spiritual group, which is outlawed in China but still legal in Hong Kong.
The government bowed to public pressure on Saturday and withdrew a clause in the subversion bill which would have allowed it to ban groups that are blacklisted on the mainland.
Critics say the bill poses the biggest threat to basic civil rights since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, and could lead to more interference from Beijing in Hong Kong's affairs.
Hong Kong's constitution requires it to enact a subversion law, which Beijing wants passed as soon as possible to prevent hostile forces from using this city to subvert the mainland.
Organisers of the vigil want the law to be passed only after universal suffrage is established in Hong Kong after 2007. - (Reuters)