Hong Kong students boycott first day of classes

Students are protesting in Hong Kong on the first day of classes.
(Image credit: PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty Images)

Hong Kong students boycotted classes in a pro-democracy protest on Monday, the first day of the new school year, The Guardian reports. High school students gathered outside their schools, kneeling, holding hands, and chanting, "Free Hong Kong! Democracy Now!"

Organizers estimated 9,000 or more students from more than 200 schools were participating. Pro-democracy demonstrators also followed up a tense weekend of protests by disrupting transportation during rush hour, blocking train doors from closing in the city's mass transit railway stations.

Several editorials in Chinese state media condemned the protests against Hong Kong's Beijing-backed government. An editorial on the state-run Xinhua news agency's site said "the end is coming for those attempting to disrupt Hong Kong."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.