Hong Kong strike disrupts city as leader warns of ‘dangerous situation’

Passengers look at an electronic billboard displaying flight information at Hong Kong International Airport on Monday. Many flights were canceled due to a general strike. (Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

August 5 -- The Washington Post

HONG KONG — On Monday, Ken Kwok did not head to his job in airline operations. Neither did financial planner Rachel Wong. Ashley Yue put her Hong Kong food tours on hold for the day.

Instead, they joined civil servants, bus drivers, baristas and pilots in a citywide strike that shut down businesses, crippled Hong Kong’s subway system and caused flight cancellations — an embarrassment for the Asian financial hub’s beleaguered government. As protesters rallied across the city, even the happiest place on Earth was not immune: Dozens of workers at Hong Kong Disneyland went on strike, disrupting rides.

The actions — and the protest-linked chaos that ensued again — struck at Hong Kong’s increasingly precarious position as an efficient base for business and signaled widening public anger over the failure of its leaders to offer concessions that could defuse weeks of political strife.

Full story here.