Hong Kong International Airport canceled all flights Monday in response to a flood of thousands of protesters staging a sit-in at the facility, demanding justice for pro-democracy activists and bystanders subject to violence by police and pro-China mobs throughout the city.

The cancellations affected more than 100 flights, many coming in from around the world. Authorities announced they expect flights will resume at 6 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Some flights were forced to turn around mid-flight after the cancellation.

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Hong Kong police estimated that over 5,000 protesters swarmed the airport, though protesters have accused police of understating protest numbers in the past to make the pro-democracy movement seem smaller.

The Hong Kong protest movement took off in early June, a response to the Legislative Council (LegCo) attempting to pass a law that would allow China to extradite anyone present in Hong Kong if accused of violating Chinese Communist Party laws. Under the “One Country, Two Systems” policy, China cannot impose communist law on Hong Kong, a rule the extradition bill would break. Protesters are demanding a full withdrawal of the extradition bill in addition to four other concessions: free election of all Hong Kong lawmakers, an independent inquiry into police brutality, freedom for political prisoners, and a declaration that the government was wrong to call the protest that occurred on June 12 a “riot.”

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Protesters waved signs urging foreign visitors to learn about the authoritarian state of the city and demanding justice for a woman believed to have been shot in the eye with a bean bag projectile, used by police to subdue crowds. Shocking photos of paramedics tending to the woman circulated on social media widely on Sunday night, showing her face bloodied and bandaged. Reports from paramedics who took her to the hospital say the woman has undergone hours of surgery to repair her face and will likely lose her right eye.

Protesters at the airport held signs reading “an eye for an eye,” “dirty cops return her eye,” and many wore eyepatches in solidarity. Others made eyes out of paper plates and construction paper and waved them around.

While Monday’s was the largest and most disruptive protest at the airport since the protests began in early June, protesters have been staging sit-ins at the airport for days, leaving pamphlets explaining the protest movement to visitors and urging police to cease violently attacking dissidents. Outside of the airport, police have escalated their use of tear gas – on several occasions this weekend, shooting tear gas into enclosed Mass Transit Rail (MTR) underground stations – and using projectiles such as bean bags and rubber bullets on protesters. The airport has become a more attractive spot to protest since police cannot use tear gas there without a reasonable chance of injuring travelers unrelated to the protest movement. . . .

The Chinese Communist regime has refused to yield to the demands and claims, despite evidence, that the peaceful pro-democracy movement is a violent “terrorist” plot orchestrated by the United States.

(Excerpted from Breitbart, article by Frances Martel.)

Pray for these desperate people who have enjoyed the freedom of democracy, and now are being threatened with the laws of communist China. Pray for the proper and wise response from our leaders, to encourage freedom in other parts of the world.