HONG KONG - Tens of thousands of people
marched on Hong Kong's parliament on Sunday to demand the
scrapping of proposed extradition rules that would allow people
to be sent to mainland China for trial - a move which some fear
puts the city's core freedoms at risk.
Opponents of the proposal fear further erosion of rights and
legal protections in the free-wheeling financial hub - freedoms
which were guaranteed under the city's handover from British
colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
Ranks of marchers snaked peacefully for more than three
hours through the shopping and business districts of Causeway
Bay and Wanchai, with thousands staying on into the evening
outside the Legislative Council and government headquarters.
Police said 22 800 people marched at the peak of the
procession, but organisers estimated 130 000 turned out - making
it one of the largest street protests in the city for several
years.
Observers said the turnout dwarfed an earlier protest
against the plan last month.
Veteran activist and former legislator Leung Kwok-hung said
the government's move risked removing Hong Kongers' "freedom
from fear".
"Hong Kong people and visitors passing by Hong Kong will
lose their right not to be extradited into mainland China," he
said. "They would need to face an unjust legal system on the
mainland."
Some younger marchers said they were worried about
travelling to the mainland after the move, which comes just as
the government encourages young people to deepen ties with the
mainland and promotes Hong Kong's links with southern China.
Law clerk Edward Wen, 45, said the difference in human
rights standards between Hong Kong and the mainland was too
great to bridge.
"You will be screwed as long as they put up a crime on your
behalf," he said.
The marchers' chanted demands for Hong Kong Chief Executive
Carrie Lam to step down echoed through the high-rise streets,
with some protesters saying she had "betrayed" Hong Kong.
Some sported yellow umbrellas - the symbol of the Occupy
pro-democracy movement that paralysed parts of Hong Kong for 11
weeks in 2014.
The proposed changes have sparked an unusually broad chorus
of concern from international business elites to lawyers and
rights' groups and even some pro-establishment figures.
Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong who
handed the city back to Chinese rule in 1997, on Saturday
described the move as "an assault on Hong Kong's values,
stability and security", government-funded broadcaster RTHK
reported.
LOOPHOLES
Chief Executive Lam and other government officials are
standing fast by their proposals, calling them vital to plug
long-standing loopholes.
Under the changes, the Hong Kong leader would have the right
to order the extradition of wanted offenders to China, Macau and
Taiwan as well as other countries not covered by Hong Kong's
existing extradition treaties.
As a safeguard, such orders, to be issued case-by-case,
could be challenged and appealed through the city's vaunted
legal system.
Government officials have said no one at risk of the death
penalty or torture or facing a political charge could be sent
from Hong Kong. Under pressure from local business groups, they
earlier exempted nine commercial crimes from the new provisions.
The proposals could be passed into law later in the year,
with the city's pro-democratic camp no longer holding enough
seats to block the move.
The government has justified the swift introduction of the
changes by saying they are needed so a young Hong Kong man
suspected of murdering his girlfriend in Taiwan can be
extradited to face charges there.
The government's assurances are not enough for Lam Wing-kee,
a former Hong Kong political bookseller who said in 2016 he was
abducted by mainland agents in the city.
Lam left Hong Kong for Taiwan last week, saying he feared
being sent back to the mainland under the new laws and his
experience showed he could have no trust in China's legal
system.
A group of 33 followers of Falun Gong, a religious sect
banned in China, flew from Taiwan to Hong Kong on Saturday to
join the march but were refused entry to Hong Kong, RTHK
reported.
Sunday's march comes amid renewed calls for deeper electoral
reforms stalled five years ago after Occupy protests.
Four leaders of the movement were last week sentenced to
jail terms ranging from eight to 16 months, part of a group of
nine activists found guilty after a near month-long trial.