Critics fear the extradition law will tangle people up in China's notoriously opaque courts
Hong Kong is bracing for another mass rally Sunday as public anger seethes following unprecedented clashes between protesters and police over a controversial extradition law, despite a climbdown by the city's embattled leader.
Organisers are hoping for another mammoth turnout as they vowed to keep pressure on chief executive Carrie Lam, who suspended work on the hugely divisive bill Saturday after days of mounting pressure, saying she had misjudged the public mood.
Critics fear the Beijing-backed law will tangle people up in China's notoriously opaque and politicised courts as well as hammer the city's reputation as a safe business hub.
The international finance hub was rocked by the worst political violence since its 1997 handover to China on Wednesday as tens of thousands of protesters were dispersed by riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
Lam stopped short of committing to permanently scrapping the proposal and the concession was swiftly rejected by protest leaders, who called on her to resign, permanently shelve the bill and apologise for police tactics.
On Sunday afternoon, protesters will march from a park on the main island to the city's parliament -- a repeat of a massive rally a week earlier in which organisers said more than a million people turned out.
Lam's decision to ignore that record-breaking turnout and press ahead with tabling the bill for debate in the legislature on Wednesday was the spark that lit the clashes which brought parts of the financial hub to a standstill.
The protest movement has morphed in recent days from one specifically aimed at scrapping the extradition bill, to a wider movement of anger at Lam and Beijing over years of sliding freedoms.
"The pro-democracy group will not stop at this point, they want to build on the momentum against Carrie Lam," political analyst Willy Lam, told AFP. "They will keep the heat on and ride the momentum."
Police said they had no choice but to use force to meet hardcore violent protesters who had besieged their lines outside the city's parliament on Wednesday.
But critics -- including legal and rights groups -- say officers used a small minority of violent protesters to launch a sweeping security crackdown against predominantly young, peaceful protesters and clear the streets.
Anger has also been fanned by Lam and senior officers calling those in the streets "rioters".
Protest leaders have called for police to drop charges against anyone arrested for rioting and other offences linked to Wednesday's clashes.
Lam has argued that Hong Kong needs to end the lack of an extradition agreement with the mainland and says safeguards were in place to ensure dissidents or political cases would not be accepted.
Opposition to the bill united an unusually wide cross-section of Hong Kong from influential legal and business bodies, to religious leaders and western nations.
Crimsonera on June 15th, 2019 at 21:41 UTC »
Here's some Drone Footage of the protests. Give you another prospective of it all.
lebbe on June 15th, 2019 at 20:14 UTC »
The extradition law in the title enables China to extradite from Hong Kong anyone it doesn't like. And it won't just be HK citizens. Any foreigners living, studying, traveling, or merely transferring flight in HK will also be snatched up by China at will.
This is an existential threat to HK and its people, bad enough that a person just took his own life a few hours ago to protest against this law. Why? Because the judicial system in China is a joke. A fucked up, cruel joke.
A few examples of how fucked up China's judicial system is:
1) The Chief Justice of China's Supreme Court publicly shat on the rule of law:
"China's courts must firmly resist the western idea of “constitutional democracy”, “separation of powers” and “judicial independence”. These are erroneous western notions that threaten the leadership of the ruling Communist Party... We have to raise our flag and show our sword to struggle against such thoughts."
Let that sink in: the chief judge of China is firmly against judicial independence. He sees his job as obeying Communist Party's orders.
2) The Chinese government can casually kidnap anyone with impunity. Dong Yaoqiong live streamed herself splashing ink on a poster of Xi Jinping and saying "I oppose Xi Jinping's dictatorship and the Communist Party's oppression."
Later that day the Chinese Gestapo went to her apartment and took her away.
Her last social media update before her account was wiped:
She was never heard from again.
Her father went online to call attention to her kidnapping. He and a supporter of his were also taken away.
This is the live stream showing her father and his supporter being taken away
3) Another case of government kidnapping: Causeway Bay Books is a bookstore in Hong Kong that sells books that are banned in China. People who worked there were kidnapped in Hong Kong by the Chinese Government and secretly shipped to China for interrogation. The Chinese wanted to know who from China had bought banned books from the bookstore. Hence the kidnapping. The manager of the bookstore was locked up in China for months and was only allowed back to Hong Kong on the promise he would retrieve a customer list from a hard drive in HK and give it to China. He reneged on his promise once he crossed the border and hold a press conference instead. Now he's in exile in Taiwan.
A shareholder of the bookstore was kidnapped in Thailand in 2015 and is STILL being locked up in China to this day.
4) In China writing fictions can get you a long sentence: Chinese writer sentenced to 10 years in prison for writing homoerotic novels
5) China has rounded up minorities like Uighurs & other muslims into concentration camps. There are estimated 1.5 million to 3 millions locked up in those camps. As far as anyone can tell none of those millions in detention have been charged or tried for any crimes. Not that trials in China mean much.
6) Political prisoners are treated as free organ farms.
The Independent Tribunal Into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience In China:
The Nightmare of Human Organ Harvesting in China:
Call for retraction of 400 scientific papers amid fears organs came from Chinese prisoners
Over 1 million (1/7 of population, the equivalence of 50 millions in US) people went on a march to protest against this law. Another protest was violently suppressed by the gov. With all the international attentions and blowback the gov has suspended the passing of this bill but they're still refusing to withdraw it. The bill will come back. This coming protest is to say no to that.
EDIT: There are questions about whether this law can be used to extradite foreigners who have never set foot in China. The answer is yes.
Why? Because China claims jurisdiction on foreigners living outside China:
China also says it can claim jurisdiction in cases where foreigners outside the country “commit crimes against the PRC state or its citizens,”
So anyone can absolutely be extradited under this law.
Lawyers say that if the extradition law is passed, China could use it to retaliate against foreign nationals, such as Americans who work in or travel to Hong Kong. In addition, Hong Kong’s status as a base for journalists, as well as for human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, could suffer.
kyberton on June 15th, 2019 at 17:20 UTC »
I’ll be there, as I was last Sunday.