Hong Kong protesters plan 'Baltic Chain' demonstration; Canada-China ties worsen

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong are planning to a "stress test" of its international airport this weekend by holding more demonstrations.

Several protests are planned to take place on Friday, including a march by accountants to government headquarters and a "Baltic Chain" demonstration. The event will mimic the 1989 movement, also known as "Baltic Way", where two million people cross three Baltic states joined arms to peacefully protest against the Soviet rule.

Rally organisers said in a statement, "The Baltic Way brought the world's attention to their cause and inspired following generations. We plead that you will not look away at this crucial time. Stand with Hong Kong," reported Reuters.

The ongoing protests in the Chinese administrative region have led to severe deterioration of diplomatic relations between China and Canada after a missing British Consulate was reported to be detained by Chinese authorities. 

Simon Cheng, a British mission employee was officially confirmed to be under detention in the Shenzhen city bordering Hong Kong twelve days after his girlfriend and parents reported him missing.

The Canadian consulate in Hong Kong retaliated on Friday by suspending all work travel to mainland China for local staff.

According to reports by Chinese state media on Thursday, Cheng had been detained for illegally soliciting prostitutes.

However, in an ominous article on the state media site, Global Times, criticised Cheng citing his social media posts, for supporting the Hong Kong movement, reported South China Morning Post.

The article, which included an image of a person being slapped in the face with a caption that read, "I am hitting you on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party," revealed that Cheng did not support the "one country, two systems" principle under China and advocated for the city and Taiwan's independence.

While not much information on his detention has been released, Canada's recent decision was issued after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to "always defend Canadians and Canadian interests" and stand up to China on Wednesday.

Trudeau urged de-escalation of tensions over the pro-democracy protests. The Chinese foreign ministry, on the other hand, slammed the prime minister's remark a day later and said that Hong Kong was an internal matter and the statements about the city were incorrect and amounted to meddling. 

Landmark protests at the airport are planned over the weekend to disrupt the functioning of the Hong Kong airport, which is one of the busiest airports in the world.

"Go to the airport by different means, including MTR, Airport Bus, Taxi, Bike and Private Car to increase pressure on airport transport," protest organisers wrote online, according to Reuters.

The scheduled protest follows last week's demonstration that led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights. Operations restarted after violent clashes between protesters and police erupted and the airport authority attained restriction order aiming to ban any protests in the building. The order was extended on Friday by the Hong Kong's High Court.

The Hong Kong protests continue to escalate as the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, agreed to hold dialogues and listen to the demonstrators but refused to commit to withdraw the contentious extradition bill that led to the political crisis.

Activists and lawmakers have put forward five demands -- the bill's withdrawal, an independent investigation into police brutality, a stop in describing the protests as "rioting", Lam's resignation from the governing body and resuming political reform.

While the protests were primarily for full withdrawal of the proposed extradition bill that would allow China to pursue their political targets residing in communist regime ruled city. The protests developed into a major political movement against Beijing's clampdown of freedom of independent judiciary and the right to protests that have threatened Hong Kong's sovereignty.