Hundreds of thousands of protesters headed through the Hong Kong market to show their opposition to the government-sponsored legislation. This legislation will allow fugitives to be extradited to countries with less robust legal systems, including mainland China along with huge charges. The protest was peaceful before Monday morning, but after that, a large number of people tried to enter Hong Kong’s parliament and faced a direct clash with police.
In 1977, the city was handed back to China and since then it has been the largest mass of protesters. According to the Hong Kong police, the number of protesters is close to 240,000. According to a group of critics, this bill can leave any person in Hong Kong is vulnerable. After that, it will be very easy to get grabbed by the Chinese authorities for a lot of reasons. The set of reasons can include political reasons, undermining its semi-autonomous system and other inadvertent business crimes.
On Sunday afternoon, a lot of people gathered at Victoria Park in Central Hong Kong. They were wearing white and holding placards. A group of people chanted “Hong Kong, never give up!”, “step down,” “shelve the evil law,” and “anti extradition to China,”
According to the police, at least seven people were arrested. Hong Kong police has declared it on Twitter. They also said that some men with masks were planning to occupy a road in the city. Pepper spray was used on the protesters to make the space free. The early protest was peaceful but overnight it has become violent. And the police force was trying to clear the protesters with batons.
What RushHourDaily said
According to RushHourDaily reports, protesters charged at police so that they can enter the legislative council building. After the first attack, the police charged back and used tear gas guns and pepper spray. After that, the crowd briefly entered into lobby yet police used batons and pepper spray until most left the building.
Protesters took place almost three days before the semi-autonomous Chinese territory government planned to bring the bill to the legislature. It was following a committee process in order to win approval by the end of June. And the bill was proposed by Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.
What did the government say?
According to the government, the bill was planned to plug loopholes in the law. Here Hong Kong bodies can decide on a case by case basis. The decision affects the sending of fugitives to territories, especially where it does not have the right extradition deals. Along with this, it has been noticed that the lawmakers have declared there will not be any guarantee written into the bill.
On late Sunday, the Hong Kong government has said that it respects the right of people’s opposition. And it guaranteed the right to keep the social, political, legal systems.
According to Lam’s government, it was needed to properly revise the legal loopholes. But according to the protesters, this act is just a mere excuse to pursue the old agenda of limit Hong Kong’s legal independence. The legislative council is planning to arrange a vote on the bill coming Wednesday.
