China said Monday it will not allow discussion of Hong Kong at the G20 summit this week even as US President Donald Trump plans to raise the city's mass protests during his meeting with President Xi Jinping.

The semi-autonomous city has been shaken by huge demonstrations this month with protesters demanding the withdrawal of a bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland.

Trump has weighed in on Hong Kong's worst political unrest since its handover from Britain to China in 1997, saying he understood the reason for the protests and hoped demonstrators can "work it out with China".

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later said Trump would discuss Hong Kong with Xi at the Group of 20 summit, which is taking place in Osaka, Japan, on Friday and Saturday.

But Chinese assistant foreign minister Zhang Jun said the G20 is a forum to focus on global economic issues.

Xi and Trump have agreed to hold bilateral talks focusing on the US-China trade war during the summit.

"I can tell you with certainty that the G20 will not discuss the Hong Kong issue and we will not allow the G20 to discuss the Hong Kong issue," Zhang said at a press briefing previewing Xi's attendance at the summit.

"Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and no foreign country has the right to intervene," he said, noting that the city is a special administrative region of China.

- New rally for G20 -

The international finance hub has been rocked by its worst political unrest in nearly 50 years.

Millions have marched this month to oppose the hugely unpopular extradition law, which has since been postponed in the face of the huge public backlash. Police also fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators earlier in the month.

The demonstrations have since morphed into a wider movement against city leader Carrie Lam and Beijing after years of sliding political freedoms.

Protest groups in Hong Kong on Monday announced plans to hold a new rally on Wednesday evening, directly aimed at the G20 leaders who will begin arriving in Japan the following day.

"In holding this rally, we are facing the world, posing several questions to the leaders of 20 countries: Do Hong Kongers deserve democracy? Should Hong Kongers have democracy? Can Hong Kongers implement our democratic system yet?" Jimmy Sham, from the Civil Human Rights Front, which has organised the recent mass protests, told reporters.

On China's refusal to address the Hong Kong protests at the G20, Sham responded: "If you think that you do not need to explain what happens in your country to the world because they are internal affairs, then China, you should withdraw from the United Nations."

Protest leaders also plan to hold another huge rally on July 1 but student-led groups -- communicating through encrypted messaging apps -- have also begun embracing spontaneous, fast-moving acts of civil disobedience.

On Friday they blockaded the city's police headquarters for 15 hours, and have also targeted government ministries.

On Monday afternoon around one hundred mostly young protesters blocked the entrance of a tower block containing the city's tax department, turning away employees and members of the public.

Hong Kongers emigrate as freedoms and living standards slide
Taipei (AFP) June 21, 2019 - Hong Kongers are looking for greener pastures overseas as the city's freedoms and living standards slide, with those emigrating saying the huge political protests rocking the international finance hub are just the latest catalyst.

Edward, a Hong Kong information science student living in Taipei, is nearly at the end of his course but has no plans to return to his birth city.

The 23-year-old, who asked not to use his family name, said he was thinking about heading to Australia in the next few years.

Huge protests sweeping Hong Kong sparked by a Beijing-backed plan to allow extraditions to the mainland have only reinforced his determination to emigrate -- and pushed him to consider settling in Taiwan for good.

"The China extradition law has prompted me to speed up my immigration plans," he told AFP from his university campus.

Taiwan, a democratic self-ruled island just an hour's flight from Hong Kong, is an easier place to settle, Edward explained, offering a path to citizenship within about three years for students.

"In my college there are more and more Hong Kong students each year," he added.

- Steady drain -

Obtaining precise data on how many Hong Kongers are emigrating is difficult because the government does not keep those numbers.

And many of the city's wealthier citizens -- including politicians and business leaders -- already have dual passports, a legacy of the city's 1997 handover to China when scores snapped up British, Canadian, American and Australian passports.

But more anecdotal evidence suggests there has been a steady drain of talent away from the city in the last decade -- a period that has seen public anger build over rising inequality, eye-watering property prices and fears Beijing is trying to undermine Hong Kong's unique freedoms and culture.

John Hu, a Hong Kong migration consultant, said there were two distinct recent periods where emigration spiked: the lead up to the handover and after the failure of the 2014 "Umbrella Movement" pro-democracy protests to win any concessions.

The extradition bill has prompted "a third wave".

"The rate of inquiries rose nearly 50 percent" after the bill was announced in February, Hu told AFP. "When the people went onto the streets to protest, it rose even more".

Top destinations, he said, remained English-speaking nations with large Chinese communities like Australia, Canada, the United States and Britain. But many were increasingly willing to consider other European Union nations.

Most of his clients are middle class or younger people, often concerned about the standard of medical care and high cost of living. "And I think the political environment lately has accelerated the demand for emigration," he added.

YouTube and Facebook now abound with videos explaining how to emigrate while a poll by a local university last year found a third of respondents -- including nearly half of those who are college-educated -- said they would emigrate if they got the chance.

- 'I will miss Hong Kong' -

Steven Lam, a 37-year-old who works for a logistic company, said he and his wife were already looking considering a move to Australia following the birth of their child to escape Hong Kong's notoriously high-pressured school system. But the political situation has hardened their resolve.

"China is tightening its grip on Hong Kong," he told AFP.

"I will miss Hong Kong so much," he said. "But thinking for the next generation, I think it's worthwhile."

Po Fung, a Hong Kong film critic in his fifties, moved to Taiwan last year, and says he has no regrets.

He now runs a film-themed bookstore in Taipei, obtaining a residency permit through an immigration scheme that requires a TW$6 million ($193,000) investment.

"I don't like Hong Kong's political environment because there is a continuous tightening in human rights and it's making me very unhappy to live in that environment," he told AFP.

"There are also economic factors I can't overlook," he added, saying Taiwan was a much cheaper place to spend his planned retirement years.

But others say the protests have reinvigorated a desire to stay.

Cheung Hon-yuen, a 55-year-old electrician who was out protesting last week, said his father fled Communist China for safety in Hong Kong.

"I wanted to emigrate to another country, but now that I see the Hong Kong people are so united I want to stay," he said. "I don't want to give up until the end."

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HK leader apologises for extradition crisis, vows to stay on
Hong Kong (AFP) June 18, 2019
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam apologised Tuesday for the political unrest that has shaken Hong Kong, but the pro-Beijing chief executive refused to bow to demands for her resignation. The semi-autonomous territory has been plunged into its biggest crisis in decades, with millions of people taking to the streets to demand the withdrawal of proposed legislation that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. Lam suspended the bill on Saturday after two massive rallies that saw isolated bouts ... read more