Pro-democracy
protesters in Hong Kong are gearing up for more rallies starting on Friday, in defiance of a series of warnings from
China and after a prominent independence campaigner was arrested.
The semi-autonomous southern Chinese city has seen two months of unrest that was triggered by opposition to a planned extradition law and then quickly evolved into a wider movement for democratic reforms.
Authorities in Hong Kong and
Beijing this week signalled a hardening stance, including with the arrests of dozens of protesters and the Chinese military describing the unrest as "intolerable".