In Hong Kong, More Protests Begin After Wave of Arrests

“The price I paid is just a small piece of cake” compared to what other protesters have been through, he told reporters.

Hong Kong’s political crisis, the worst since Britain handed the colony back to China in 1997, was set off by widespread anger over a bill that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial. The measure, which critics said could be used to target activists, was suspended, but not withdrawn as protesters have demanded.

[How the protests in Hong Kong have evolved, with changing tactics, goals and more violence.]

Vincent Ho, 40, arrived at the Wan Chai playground on Saturday with his wife and their 10-year-old son. He said he had wondered whether it was safe to bring his son, but that they planned to leave before anything dangerous happened.

Mr. Ho, who works at a bank, said measures like the extradition bill would make him question whether he was comfortable having his son grow up in the city.

“Our freedom is being taken away,” he said. “Our system is being destroyed, and without that, it’s not Hong Kong anymore.”

The planned route for the now-canceled Saturday march went from Hong Kong’s central business district to the Chinese government’s local liaison office, as a means of focusing public attention on the five-year anniversary of Beijing’s decision to limit elections.

On Saturday afternoon, sidewalks outside the liaison office were blocked by water-filled plastic barriers more than six feet high. The city’s subway operator, the MTR Corporation, had also closed a nearby train station until further notice — “as a prudent measure,” it said, ahead of “public activities likely to be taking place.”