The former British colony was allowed to deviate from the nationwide celebrations because it enjoys Western-style civil liberties as part of its special semiautonomous status.

About 200 people marched through Hong Kong’s downtown financial district, chanting, “We want human rights. We don’t want a sanitized National Day.” Many held placards with reminders of the military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Separately, some 500 followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement walked silently, holding banners that said “Dissolve the Chinese Communist Party” and “Get rid of the red menace.” Falun Gong claims that hundreds of thousands of its followers have been persecuted in China, where it is banned… It is allowed to operate in Hong Kong.

The activists said China still suffers under an authoritarian government despite rapid economic growth.

“We have seen many improvements in hardware, but people don’t just live for sustenance and their external conditions. It’s also important to see if people can live with dignity and with freedom,” pro-democracy activist Richard Tsoi said.

Another veteran democracy campaigner, Szeto Wah, said Hong Kong, with its free press and freedom of speech, has a key role in shining the spotlight on China’s problems.

“At least we can serve as a window — information about China can reach the outside world and information from the outside can flow in,” Szeto said.

A woman who answered the phone at the Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong said no one was available for comment because of the National Day holiday.

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