Thousands take to Hong Kong streets to protest new extradition laws

[webfact]

Thousands take to Hong Kong streets to protest new extradition laws

By Jessie Pang and Greg Torode

 

Demonstrators hold yellow umbrellas, the symbol of the Occupy Central movement during a protest to demand authorities scrap a proposed extradition bill with China, in Hong Kong, China April 28, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

 

HONG KONG, April 28 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people marched on Hong Kong's parliament on Sunday to demand the scrapping of proposed extradition rules that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial - a move which some fear puts the city's core freedoms at risk.

 

Opponents of the proposal fear further erosion of rights and legal protections in the free-wheeling financial hub - freedoms which were guaranteed under the city's handover from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

 

Ranks of marchers snaked peacefully for more than three hours through the shopping and business districts of Causeway Bay and Wanchai, with thousands staying on into the evening outside the Legislative Council and government headquarters.

 

Police said 22,800 people marched at the peak of the procession, but organisers estimated 130,000 turned out - making it one of the largest street protests in the city for several years.

 

Observers said the turnout dwarfed an earlier protest against the plan last month.

 

Veteran activist and former legislator Leung Kwok-hung said the government's move risked removing Hong Kongers' "freedom from fear".

 

"Hong Kong people and visitors passing by Hong Kong will lose their right not to be extradited into mainland China," he said. "They would need to face an unjust legal system on the mainland."

 

Some younger marchers said they were worried about travelling to the mainland after the move, which comes just as the government encourages young people to deepen ties with the mainland and promotes Hong Kong's links with southern China.

 

Law clerk Edward Wen, 45, said the difference in human rights standards between Hong Kongand the mainland was too great to bridge.

"You will be screwed as long as they put up a crime on your behalf," he said.

 

The marchers' chanted demands for Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to step down echoed through the high-rise streets, with some protesters saying she had "betrayed" Hong Kong.

 

Some sported yellow umbrellas - the symbol of the Occupy pro-democracy movement that paralysed parts of Hong Kong for 11 weeks in 2014.

 

The proposed changes have sparked an unusually broad chorus of concern from international business elites to lawyers and rights' groups and even some pro-establishment figures.

 

Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong who handed the city back to Chinese rule in 1997, on Saturday described the move as "an assault on Hong Kong's values, stability and security", government-funded broadcaster RTHK reported.

 

LOOPHOLES

Chief Executive Lam and other government officials are standing fast by their proposals, calling them vital to plug long-standing loopholes.

 

Under the changes, the Hong Kong leader would have the right to order the extradition of wanted offenders to China, Macau and Taiwan as well as other countries not covered by Hong Kong's existing extradition treaties.

 

As a safeguard, such orders, to be issued case-by-case, could be challenged and appealed through the city's vaunted legal system.

 

Government officials have said no one at risk of the death penalty or torture or facing a political charge could be sent from Hong Kong. Under pressure from local business groups, they earlier exempted nine commercial crimes from the new provisions.

 

The proposals could be passed into law later in the year, with the city's pro-democratic camp no longer holding enough seats to block the move.

 

The government has justified the swift introduction of the changes by saying they are needed so a young Hong Kong man suspected of murdering his girlfriend in Taiwan can be extradited to face charges there.

 

The government's assurances are not enough for Lam Wing-kee, a former Hong Kong political bookseller who said in 2016 he was abducted by mainland agents in the city.

 

Lam left Hong Kong for Taiwan last week, saying he feared being sent back to the mainland under the new laws and his experience showed he could have no trust in China's legal system.

 

A group of 33 followers of Falun Gong, a religious sect banned in China, flew from Taiwan toHong Kong on Saturday to join the march but were refused entry to Hong Kong, RTHK reported.

 

Sunday's march comes amid renewed calls for deeper electoral reforms stalled five years ago after Occupy protests.

 

Four leaders of the movement were last week sentenced to jail terms ranging from eight to 16 months, part of a group of nine activists found guilty after a near month-long trial.

 

(Reporting By Jessie Pang and Greg Torode; Additional reporting by Aleksander Solum and Clare Jim, Editing by Michael Perry, Richard Pullin and Dale Hudson)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-29

[YetAnother]

15 minutes ago, webfact said:

further erosion of rights and legal protections in the free-wheeling financial hub - freedoms which were guaranteed under the city's handover from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

i suggest Hong Kong brings out their army

[animalmagic]

1 hour ago, YetAnother said:

i suggest Hong Kong brings out their army

Which army would that be?

[Proboscis]

10 hours ago, YetAnother said:

i suggest Hong Kong brings out their army

To do what, exactly?

[car720]

The smart ones are on their way to Singapore and Taiwan or even Malaysia and Indonesia.

[Ulic]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Opponents of the proposal fear further erosion of rights and legal protections in the free-wheeling financial hub - freedoms which were guaranteed under the city's handover from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Was there ever any doubt that this would happen. China promises everything to get what it wants and then step by step walks it back, or like trade agreements agreed to with Nixon in the 70's just stalls, saying these changes take time. And the West continues to wait. China's politics and creep is generational while politics in the West is from election cycle to election cycle. China plays 3D Chess while the West is playing Checkers. Nobody should be surprised.

[Humpy]

UK Governments had the offer of another 99 year lease some years ago and they rejected it.........idiots !!! 

[Baerboxer]

3 hours ago, car720 said:

The smart ones are on their way to Singapore and Taiwan or even Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

I spent a lot of time in HK in the early 90's on business. Most HK Chinese clients were actively moving families and wealth to Australia, Vancouver, Singapore or UK. 

 

All thought that the rights granted under any agreements would be eroded. Not a question of if just how long.

 

China knows the UK can't and won't do anything; nor the US. So they might speed the clock up.

[stevenl]

5 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

I spent a lot of time in HK in the early 90's on business. Most HK Chinese clients were actively moving families and wealth to Australia, Vancouver, Singapore or UK. 

 

All thought that the rights granted under any agreements would be eroded. Not a question of if just how long.

 

China knows the UK can't and won't do anything; nor the US. So they might speed the clock up.

Agreed, they have been speeding up lately.

[Traubert]

It seems Reuters glossed over this bit and decided to print the comments from the protesters instead.

 

Hong Kong crafted this new proposal after Taiwanese officials asked Hong Kong to send a 19-year-old man wanted for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. Hong Kong authorities arrested Chan Tong-kai but could only charge him with money laundering.

 

Not much to do with Beijing at all.

[Thingamabob]

Utterly shameful  of the UK to throw Hong Kong under the bus, overseen by fat prat Patton.

[Srikcir]

20 minutes ago, Traubert said:

It seems Reuters glossed over this bit and decided to print the comments from the protesters instead.

 

Hong Kong crafted this new proposal after Taiwanese officials asked Hong Kong to send a 19-year-old man wanted for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. Hong Kong authorities arrested Chan Tong-kai but could only charge him with money laundering.

 

Not much to do with Beijing at all.

Under Hong Kong's and Taiwan's ‘one country, two systems’ principle with China, a separate extradition treaty could have been done separately with Taiwan and China. But with Beijing  in charge of Hong Kong’s foreign affairs it would be tough to set any agreements between Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Hong Kong security minister John Lee Ka-chiu rejected having a special arrangement with Taiwan.  https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2186045/strike-extradition-deal-solely-taiwan-instead-changing

Interestingly, the bill drafted by Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam had exempted nine economic crimes from a list of extraditable offenses related to fiscal matters, taxes or duties, securities and futures trading, bankruptcy, insolvency or companies law, protection of intellectual property and copyright, alongside the unlawful use of computers in the face of pressure from the business community. 

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3003729/hong-kongs-chief-executive-carrie-lam-has-revised-her

[EVENKEEL]

Doesn't Hong Kong now since the 90s belong to China, what's the problem.

[Liverpudlian]

9 hours ago, animalmagic said:

Which army would that be?

The one with the " change must come thru the barrel of a gun " mob.

[Traubert]

7 minutes ago, Liverpudlian said:

The one with the " change must come thru the barrel of a gun " mob.

Alabama 3?

 

http://www.metrolyrics.com/mao-tse-tung-said-lyrics-a3-alabama-3.html

 

What Mao actually said was 'All things come from the barrel of a gun.'

[animalmagic]

4 hours ago, Humpy said:

UK Governments had the offer of another 99 year lease some years ago and they rejected it.........idiots !!! 

I have no recollection of there ever being an offer of a second 99 year lease.  The negotiations on HK's future took place in the early 80's with Maggie Thatcher and Deng Xiaoping and, I understand, it was made very clear that there would be no further lease on the New Territories.  Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula (pre 1898) could not survive without the New Territories so the decision was made to return all of HK.  China held all the aces as at that time they could have simply shut off the water supply from the Mainland.

[Trouble]

8 hours ago, Ulic said:

Was there ever any doubt that this would happen. China promises everything to get what it wants and then step by step walks it back, or like trade agreements agreed to with Nixon in the 70's just stalls, saying these changes take time. And the West continues to wait. China's politics and creep is generational while politics in the West is from election cycle to election cycle. China plays 3D Chess while the West is playing Checkers. Nobody should be surprised.

You got that right.  When in history did any Communist government ever keep an agreement or promise?

[timendres]

11 hours ago, Humpy said:

UK Governments had the offer of another 99 year lease some years ago and they rejected it.........idiots !!! 

Tossed 'em to the wolves.

[animalmagic]

16 hours ago, Trouble said:

You got that right.  When in history did any Communist government ever keep an agreement or promise?

I have no feelings of trust or affection for the Mainland Chinese Government but the Sino British Declaration of 1984 did state no change for 50 years.  However I think the Chinese did also quite reasonably expect there to be no change prior to the handover in 1997 as well.  Patten tried to implement 'more' democracy (a very strange term) which meant some people, not all, could vote twice!  Does seem strange that the Brits could run the place from 1841 without the need for 'more' democracy or even very little at the beginning.