HARLOW: All right, welcome back. Look at that, those are images right now out of Hong Kong International Airport where all flights are canceled. This is after at least 5,000 people swarmed the main terminal of the world's eighth busiest airport today. They packed it to protest what they say is increasing police brutality against peaceful demonstrators. Hong Kong's main airline Cathay Pacific is also telling staff they could be fired for supporting what they are calling illegal protests. For 11 straight weekends, city- wide protests have taken place over plans that would have allowed people in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China to stand trial. Major concerns over their civil rights in that. Many of the protesters are now demanding greater Democratic reforms, they are also calling for Hong Kong's leader to step down. Let's go to my colleague, our senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman, he's in Hong Kong. And Ben, today, the Chinese government said the protesters are showing, quote, "signs of terrorism".</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, because even though this is at the moment a protest against the Hong Kong government and its chief executive and the Extradition Bill, fundamentally, this is a protest against the growing influence of mainland China in Hong Kong. Keeping in mind that agreement worked out between the British and Beijing in 1997, for 50 years, Hong Kong was supposed to be a part of China, but separate in terms of its legal system. The worry is that, that legal system, that legal firewall is starting to erode. And the Chinese government in Beijing is very concerned about what this could possibly mean for this agreement, the so-called one country, two- system agreement. And they've made it clear that if the Hong Kong government -- and this is the law. If the Hong Kong government requests from Beijing whether for a natural disaster or public disorder, it can request the.
Anti- Government Protests Cancel Flights from Hong Kong Airport.