Hong Kong protests place pressure on G-20 leaders over China rule

Hong Kong protesters looked to keep their complaints about the Beijing-backed government on the global agenda with a series of demonstrations ahead of President Xi Jinping's attendance at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

About 10,000 people in Hong Kong demonstrated Wednesday in an attempt to urge this week's G-20 summit to discuss the need for increased democracy in the former British colony. Hong Kong has been rocked this month by massive protests against closer ties with mainland China.

G-20 leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping gather Friday and Saturday in Osaka, Japan for the annual meeting. Participants in the Hong Kong rally see it as a chance to focus high-level global attention on fears that the Asian financial center's freedoms are increasingly under threat.

Widespread local anger against legislation proposed by the Hong Kong government that would allow criminal extraditions to mainland China exploded this month in the form of mass protests that brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets of the territory of about 7.4 million people.

And while the demonstrations were initially spurred by the legislation, demands have moved beyond calling for the scrapping of those proposed legal changes to broader issues of democratic accountability.

"I want to fight for democracy," Connie Lee, a part-time worker who joined Wednesday evening's "G-20 Free Hong Kong Assembly" rally told CNBC. Lee added that she wants global leaders including Xi to "hear our demand, our eager desire" for freedom.

Demonstrators holding placards reading "Free Hong Kong" and "Democracy Now" packed a public square near the city's famed harbor. Police estimated that about 10,000 people were present at the peak of the protest.

Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, when it became a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China under a "one country, two systems" framework with the territory's legal system independent from the rest of China.

Politically, Hong Kong has its own legislature, but the territory's top official, the chief executive, is not directly elected and only candidates acceptable to the central government in Beijing are eligible for the role.

Source: CNBC

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