China has expanded sweeping efforts to contain a viral disease by postponing the end of this week’s Lunar New Year holiday to keep the public at home and avoid spreading infection as the death toll rose to 80.

China’s most festive holiday began in the shadow of a worrying new virus Saturday as the death toll surpassed 40, an unprecedented lockdown kept 36 million people from traveling and authorities canceled a host of Lunar New Year events.

Hong Kong police fired tear gas Sunday at a public park that was overflowing with thousands of protesters calling for electoral reforms and a boycott of the Chinese Communist Party.

Sporting their movement’s trademark black clothing and face masks, rally participants packed into Chater Garden, not far from the Chinese territory’s Legislative Council building.

More than a thousand people attended a rally in Hong Kong on Sunday to urge people and governments abroad to support the city’s pro-democracy movement and oppose China’s ruling Communist Party.

Representatives of allied activist groups from Canada, Europe and Taiwan made remarks and led the attendees in chants of “Fight for freedom! Stand with Hong Kong!”

Trump signs, Pepe the Frog graffiti and British and American flags have become a common sight at Hong Kong’s anti-government protests — and an unsettling one to longtime democracy activists on the left....

Beijing has seized on the images to portray the movement as a coddled, westernized middle class incited by foreign organizations and governments to rebel against the world’s largest...

Protesters in Hong Kong marched through a border town Sunday to oppose traders from mainland China....

They rallied in Sheung Shui, which lies across the border from the mainland city of Shenzhen. For years, traders have bought goods from the district to sell at a markup in Shenzhen. The practice is called “parallel trading” because it happens in a gray area...

Hong Kong authorities have activated a newly created “serious response” level as fears spread about a mysterious infectious disease that may have been brought back by visitors to a mainland Chinese city. The government launched a new response plan Saturday for infectious diseases of unknown cause.

A huge crowd has gathered in Hong Kong for an annual New Year’s Day protest march as the monthslong pro-democracy movement extends into 2020. Police used pepper spray and tear gas to drive off the demonstrators, although a government statement says officers were deploying the minimum necessary force in dispersing the group. It follows overnight clashes between police and protesters...

A huge crowd has gathered in Hong Kong for an annual New Year’s Day protest march as the monthslong pro-democracy movement extends into 2020. Police used pepper spray and tear gas to drive off the demonstrators, although a government statement says officers were deploying the minimum necessary force in dispersing the group. It follows overnight clashes between police and protesters...

Police fought with protesters who marched through a Hong Kong shopping mall Saturday demanding mainland Chinese traders leave the territory in a fresh weekend of anti-government tension.

The protest in Sheung Shui, near Hong Kong’s boundary with the mainland, was part of efforts to pressure the government by disrupting economic activity.

Clashes resumed in Hong Kong on Tuesday between police and anti-government protesters, some of them donned in Santa Claus hats, as the more than 6-month-long demonstrations look set to move into the new year. Black-clad protesters smashed shop windows, while police responded with tear gas and the arrest of a number of demonstrators. The protests demanding greater democratic rights show…

Clashes broke out Sunday between Hong Kong police and protesters at a rally in support of China’s Uighur minority. Police arrested two protesters who were attempting to burn a Chinese flag at the rally, which was attended by several hundred people. Some were holding signs emblazoned with the blue and white flag of the independence movement in the northwestern...

Hong Kong police said they arrested three men Saturday for testing homemade explosives that they suspect were intended for use during protests. The arrests are the latest in a rash of explosives-related cases police say they’ve uncovered since protests erupted in June over a proposed extradition law and snowballed into an anti-government movement.

Hong Kong police say they have made 6,022 arrests and fired nearly 16,000 tear gas rounds during six months of anti-government protests that have shaken the city. Police say the arrests included 11 people detained in raids over the weekend that netted a pistol and other weapons. Police suspect the weapons were intended for use during a demonstration attended by…

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators crammed into Hong Kong’s streets on Sunday, their chants echoing off high-rises, in a mass show of support for a protest movement that shows no signs of flagging as it enters the seventh month. Chanting “Fight for freedom” and “Stand with Hong Kong,” a sea of protesters formed a huge human snake winding for...

Already strained relations between China and the United States were further muddied after U.S. Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill targeting Beijing’s mass crackdown on ethnic Muslim minorities Wednesday, less than one week after President Donald Trump signed separate human rights legislation on Hong Kong. China’s ruling Communist Party has long regarded Hong Kong and the far west Xinjiang region...

China said Monday it will suspend U.S. Navy visits to Hong Kong and sanction several American pro-democracy organizations in retaliation for the signing into law of legislation supporting human rights in the semi-autonomous territory. While the nature of the sanctions remained unclear, the move appeared to back up Chinese threats that the U.S. would bear the costs of the decision....

Thousands of people took to Hong Kong’s streets Sunday in a new wave of pro-democracy protests, but police fired tear gas after some demonstrators hurled bricks and smoke bombs, breaking a rare pause in violence that has persisted during the six-month-long movement. In the largest of three rallies, a key thoroughfare along the waterfront on the Kowloon side of Victoria...

China reacted furiously Thursday to President Donald Trump’s signing two bills aimed at supporting human rights in Hong Kong, summoning the U.S. ambassador to protest and warning the move would undermine cooperation with Washington. Hong Kong, a former British colony that was granted semi-autonomy when China took control in 1997, has been rocked by six months of sometimes violent pro-democracy...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that a cache of leaked documents proves that Chinese authorities are engaged in massive and systemic repression of Muslims and other minorities in western China, as a number of foreign governments expressed serious concern about the scale of the campaign. Pompeo said the documents underscored “an overwhelming and growing body of evidence” that...