Tens of thousands of people yesterday hit Hong Kong’s streets to protest against a government plan to allow extraditions to mainland China, the crowds swollen by anger over the recent jailing of democracy leaders.
The extradition proposal has already sparked large protests and mounting alarm within the territory’s business and legal communities who fear that it will hammer the territory’s international appeal and tangle people up in China’s opaque courts.
However, yesterday’s protest was one of the biggest in the territory in the past few years.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The demonstration came just days after four prominent leaders of Hong Kong’s democracy movement were jailed for their role in organizing mass pro-democracy protests in 2014 that brought parts of the territory to a standstill for months.
Demonstrators yesterday chanted “Step down, Carrie Lam [林鄭月娥]” — referring to the territory’s pro-Beijing chief executive, while many held the yellow umbrellas that symbolized the 2014 “Umbrella movement” rallies.
Fanly Leung, an accountant, told reporters that it was “heartbreaking” to see the activists jailed earlier last week.
Photo: Reuters
“They are professors, highly knowledgable people contributing to society... They could have had a comfortable life making money and not suffer like this. It’s not right to jail these good people,” Leung, 61, said.
Zoe Yuen, 20, came with her mother who became politically active since the “Umbrella movement” protests.
“At least we have done what we should do and can tell the next generation that although we may not get what we want, at least we have resisted,” the university student told reporters.
Some protesters dressed up as Chinese police officers guarding another demonstrator standing behind a portable red cage.
One held up a sign that said: “[Chinese] President Xi Jinping [習近平], no legalized kidnapping of Hong Kong people to China.”
Police said about 22,000 turned out, their highest estimate since the 2014 protests.
Organizers have yet to give their estimates, which are usually far higher. Hong Kong has a separate legal system through the “one country, two systems” deal struck between the UK and China.
Historically, the territory has baulked at mainland extraditions because of the opacity of China’s criminal justice system and its liberal use of the death penalty.
However, earlier this year, the Hong Kong government announced plans to overhaul its extradition rules, allowing the transfer of fugitives with mainland China, Macau and Taiwan on a “case-basis” for the first time.
Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, became the latest figure to criticize the extradition proposal ahead of yesterday’s protest.
“Societies which believe in the rule of law do not reach agreements like this with those who do not. These changes are an assault on Hong Kong’s values, stability and security,” he said.
“They create fear and uncertainty for business at a time when we should all be working to safeguard Hong Kong’s reputation as one of the world’s greatest business and financial centers,” he added.
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