HONG KONG – Around 1,000 students, many wearing black masks, attended a graduation ceremony at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The students on Thursday defied a ban on masks that the government imposed last month in a bid to curb unrest that has rocked the Chinese-ruled city for over five months.
Dressed in formal graduation gowns, many of the students called for the government to respond to protesters’ demands that include universal suffrage.
The protests started over a now-scrapped extradition bill that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial but have evolved into calls for greater democracy and an independent inquiry into complaints of excessive force by police, among other demands.(Reuters)
