Vast protest in Hong Kong against extradition law
The bill creates a
system for case-by-case fugitive transfers between semi-autonomous Hong Kong
and regions with which it does not already have agreements, including
mainland China. Critics
say the proposed law would legitimise abduction in the city, and
subject political opponents and activists to China’s widely criticised judicial
system. They fear a pro-Beijing Hong Kong government would not resist requests
of a political nature
Anti-Beijing anger has been fuelled by
the jailing
in April of organisers of 2014 pro-democracy protests and the reduced
presence of pro-democracy legislators, after six were removed from parliament
in 2016 and 2017 for protesting against Beijing during their oath-taking.
Hundreds of thousands
of people have taken to the streets of Hong Kong in a vast
protest against a proposed extradition law that critics say will allow mainland
China to pursue its political opponents in the city, which has traditionally
been a safe haven from the Communist party.
A sea of people, many wearing
white, filled main roads stretching for almost two miles from Victoria Park in
the east of Hong Kong island to the legislative council complex. Thousands more
struggled to get onto packed public transport from outer Hong Kong and Kowloon
on the mainland.
Police closed metro
stations and funnelled people through narrow thoroughfares, prompting accusations
that they were deliberately attempting to reduce the scale of the protest. Anger grew and the
crowd shouted for them to free up more space, as the march came to a dead stop
for large sections, in stifling heat. Further down the road crowds jeered at a
pro-China broadcast on a large outdoor screen... read more:
