Hong Kong witnessed the largest protest since its 1997 handover to China on Sunday as huge crowds massed against plans to allow extraditions to the mainland, a proposal that has plunged the city’s pro-Beijing leaders into a crisis.
Organisers said more than a million people marched in blazing summer heat through the cramped streets of the financial hub’s main island in a noisy, colourful demonstration calling on the government to scrap its planned extradition law.
The demonstration was by far the biggest the international finance hub has experienced since it was returned to China by Britain — beaten only by a 1.5 million-strong demonstration during colonial rule in 1989 supporting the Tiananmen protesters.
Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leaders are pushing a bill through the legislature that would allow extraditions to any jurisdiction with which it does not already have a treaty — including mainland China.
Source: Guardian Newspaper.
