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Pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong raised yellow umbrellas and walked out of a parliamentary session Wednesday when Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said the government was sticking with a proposal to pre-screen candidates for the city's 2017 election.

Wednesday's walkout signaled support for protests that have crippled the city since late last year, after the plan was introduced. The plan would subject would-be candidates to pre-screening by a committee that opponents say is biased toward the Beijing communist government.

Lam said in her address Wednesday that constitutional development must be built on the basis of the Beijing-backed plan. The pro-democracy supporters -- who use the yellow umbrellas as their symbol of solidarity -- are calling for free elections that would let the city choose its own leadership without Beijing's control.

On December 31, Hong Kong police arrested 12 protesters as pro-democracy demonstrators returned to the Mong Kok neighborhood that hundreds had occupied for more than two months.

Police said Thursday they used pepper spray and batons in overnight clashes and arrested demonstrators on charges ranging from assaulting a police officer to failing to produce proof of identity.

It was the first sizeable rally since the last protest camp was cleared out on December 15.

At its peak, the so-called Occupy protest movement attracted tens of thousands of demonstrators, presenting an unprecedented challenge to Beijing's rule of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997. As a semiautonomous Chinese territory, its citizens still enjoy many freedoms not allowed on the mainland.

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Pro-Democracy Lawmakers Walk Out of Hong Kong Parliament