A general strike has paralyzed Hong Kong Monday, preventing people from getting to work and forcing cancellation of more than 200 flights.

Speaking to reporters the city’s embattled leader, Beijing-backed Carrie Lam, said protesters were pushing the city to the verge of an “extremely dangerous situation.”

Lam again rejected repeated calls from protesters for her resignation and said the government is determined to maintaining law and order.

She also said that the government will not satisfy another key demand put forward by protesters to release those who have been arrested during protests of recent weeks. 

Lam also charged the protests were putting Hong Kong on a path of no return and had hurt the city’s economy.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, center, reacts during a press conference in Hong Kong, July 22, 2019.

Hong Kong marchers staged sometimes violent protests on multiple fronts Sunday night, introducing their latest tactic to evade riot police and tear gas as the demonstrations against a controversial extradition bill entered their ninth consecutive week. 

Scrambling from the New Territories to Hong Kong island and then back across the harbor to northern Kowloon, the protesters demonstrated their hallmark levels of organization and decentralized decision-making over social media. 

In a now familiar formula, scores of protesters would arrive at a location and build barricades where they would remain until riot police arrived. A minority would stay behind and face tear gas as scores escaped through the public transit network to a new location. 

The Chinese-controlled financial hub is facing its worst political crisis since its handover to China in 1997, which began with protests against an extradition bill, already suspended, that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial and have since evolved into calls for greater democracy.

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