Thousands Of Protesters Take To Hong Kong Streets Against Extradition Bill – NPR

A protester shouts next to policemen as protesters march in a rally against the proposed amendments to extradition law in Hong Kong.

Kin Cheung/AP

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Kin Cheung/AP

A protester shouts next to policemen as protesters march in a rally against the proposed amendments to extradition law in Hong Kong.

Kin Cheung/AP

Hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday in a show of defiance against a government proposal that would allow people to be extradited to mainland China to face charges.

Police said the crowd was about 240,000 people, but organizers estimated more than 1 million turned out.

Protesters carrying banners and signs objecting to the government-backed legislation marched and chanted “no extradition” through the city center. Many of the marchers wore white, a symbol of justice and mourning in Chinese culture.

The crowds were so massive that droves of protesters found themselves marooned in subway stations.

As the overflowing throngs marched, Hong Kong authorities threatened to use force if people spilled over police barriers.

The bill at the center of the demonstrations would let criminal suspects be extradited to places where Hong Kong has no formal extradition agreement, such as mainland China.

Officials in Hong Kong are expected to bring the proposed law to parliament on Wednesday. Critics of the bill say it would enable China to prosecute its political opponents in the city. Yet Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, is pushing for the proposal’s passage before summer break in mid-July.

In Washington, D.C., a group of bipartisan legislators led by Rep. James McGovern and Sen. Marco Rubio, who chair the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, sent a letter last month to Lam expressing concern that the law would “negatively impact the relationship between the United States and Hong Kong,” asking that the legislation be immediately withdrawn.

“We believe the proposed legislation would irreparably damage Hong Kong’s cherished autonomy and protections for human rights by allowing the Chinese government to request extradition of business persons, journalists, rights advocates and political activists residing in Hong Kong,” the American lawmakers wrote.

Lam has defended the law by saying it will close a long-standing legal loophole.

The immediate goal of the government is to have a Hong Kong man suspected of killing his girlfriend sent to Taiwan to stand trial, the South China Morning Post has reported.

But there is widespread concern about the broader implication of the proposed law for Hong Kong, a former British colony that was returned to China in 1997 but has maintained its own legal and political system for 50 years.

“I needed to let my voice be heard,” Kitty Wong, a 38-year-old teacher who joined a protest for the first time, told The Wall Street Journal. She gestured to her two children, ages 8 and 9, and said: “We need to defend our home for the next generation.”