Support for Hong Kong protesters in Australia
PUBLISHED ONSeptember 29, 2014 10:05 AM
SYDNEY - Sydney's Hong Kong House was plastered with notes Monday in support of thousands of protesters who paralysed parts of the Asian city to demand greater democracy from Beijing.
Hundreds of people also signed a petition in support of those in Hong Kong who have stuck to their demands for full universal suffrage for the former British colony, organisers said.
"These are the voices we want to tell the Hong Kong government," 19-year-old organiser Joyce Lim, an economics student at Sydney's University of New South Wales, told AFP.
"We really want to protect the students in Hong Kong - if we don't stand up now it will be too late."
One protester, Chan Wing-kam, held a sign reading, "I can't keep calm because Hong Kong is dying" outside the building which is home to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.
"It's very unfortunate," he said of the situation in Hong Kong, where riot police were withdrawing from the streets Monday after a night in which tear gas was fired and pepper spray used.
"Although we are overseas... we are also supporting those students in Hong Kong," he said.
"We want our democracy, we want our hope." Hong Kong police repeatedly fired tear gas after the tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators brought parts of the city to a standstill Sunday.
Protests have gripped the city for days in response to China's refusal to grant full democracy to the former British colony.