Hong Kong's
protests could hit the
economy like a
tsunami, the city's leader said on Friday, pledging daring economic reforms in response, even as activists geared up for marches through the sweltering weekend.
What started as an angry response to a now-suspended measure for criminal suspects to be extradited for trial in mainland Chinese courts has grown to plunge the city into its biggest crisis since its 1997 return to Chinese rule from Britain.
The increasingly violent protests also pose one of the gravest populist challenges yet to Chinese leader
Xi Jinping, coming with the city caught in the crossfire of an escalating trade war between
China and the United States.