Petrol bombs were hurled at a Hong Kong police station and dozens of people were arrested Sunday following a march against so-called parallel trading near the Chinese border.

The Democratic Party said about 10,000 people marched peacefully in Sheung Shui district, but violence erupted after police ordered protesters to disperse.

Several petrol bombs were thrown at the Sheung Shui police station, about 1.5 kilometres (a mile) from where the rally took place.

The Sunday protest comes during a period of heightened anti-mainland sentiment in Hong Kong, where a pro-democracy movement demanding greater freedoms from Beijing has raged for nearly seven months.

The marchers were protesting against parallel trading, which sees thousands of mainlanders cross the border every day to bulk-buy goods such as infant formula to sell at a profit in China.

There is significant resentment against the practice, which frequently leaves goods in short supply in border towns, and has driven up the price of commodities as well as shop rents.

"If the police could spare one of the cars they drove here to handle the march to instead deal with the trading problem, we would not have to organise this protest," said Dino Chan, a Sheung Shui district councillor and one of the rally organisers.

He added that 42 people were arrested following the violence.

The anti-government protests have been blamed for helping plunge Hong Kong's economy into recession for the first time in a decade.

The protests were triggered by a proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, but have morphed into a broader revolt for democratic freedoms.

They often descend into violent clashes, with protesters using petrol bombs and other makeshift weapons, and the police responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.

On Sunday the violence was not at the level seen during many previous protests, with police using pepper spray to disperse crowds but not tear gas.

China and the Hong Kong administration have refused to bow to protester demands, which include direct elections, an inquiry into alleged police misconduct and amnesty for the nearly 7,000 people arrested so far.

China replaces top envoy to crisis-hit Hong Kong
Beijing (AFP) Jan 4, 2020 –

China has replaced its top envoy to Hong Kong, state media reported on Saturday, the most significant personnel change by Beijing since pro-democracy protests erupted in the city nearly seven months ago.

The removal of the head of the Liaison Office, which represents the central government in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, comes as the city grapples with its biggest political crisis in decades.

"Wang Zhimin has been dismissed from his position as head of the Liaison Office" and replaced by Luo Huining, state broadcaster CCTV said, without giving details.

Millions have come out on the streets since June last year in a wave of protests sparked by opposition to a now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China.

But they soon morphed into a larger demand for greater democratic freedoms in the starkest challenge to Beijing since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The demonstrations have often descended into violent clashes between hardcore protesters and the police, and Wang had condemned them as "rioters" that needed to be brought to justice.

The Liaison Office, whose director is the highest-ranking Chinese political official in Hong Kong, was targeted in July by protesters throwing eggs and graffitiing the building.

Hong Kong is ruled under the "one country, two systems" principle, which gives the territory rights unseen on mainland China — but demonstrators say these are being steadily eroded by an increasingly assertive central government in Beijing.

Protesters are demanding fully free elections to elect the city's leadership, amnesty for the thousands arrested during the protests, and an inquiry into the conduct of the police.

– 'Positive development' –

While the extradition bill that started the protests was eventually withdrawn, the Chinese government and the Hong Kong administration have since refused further concessions.

In November, Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp scored a landslide victory in a municipal-level vote — seen as a referendum on the city's Beijing-backed government.

China has denied allegations that it is clamping down on the city's freedoms, has dismissed the movement's political grievances and painted it as a foreign-backed plot.

It has also continued to back Hong Kong's deeply unpopular leader Carrie Lam.

The city leader said in a statement that she had "no doubt" the new head of the liaison office would help "promote the integration of Hong Kong into the overall development of the nation and the positive development of the relationship between the Mainland and Hong Kong".

She also thanked Wang, who had served for years in a number of positions at the Liaison Office before his appointment as its director, for giving her government "staunch support" and "a lot of confidence and encouragement" during the crisis.

In early December, following media reports that Beijing was considering replacing him, Wang had vowed to continue.

Luo, his replacement, previously served as governor of Qinghai province, and was also appointed to senior Communist Party positions in Qinghai and Shanxi provinces, according to state-run China Daily.

His Hong Kong appointment comes a week after he was made vice-chairman of Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, China's national legislature, according to China Daily.