Hong Kong’s government put on a deaf ear towards a Thursday deadline imposed by protesters to scrap controversial extradition legislation, setting the stage for additional protests this weekend.
The number of protesters right outside the Legislative Council, which had severely dwindled since a massive march last Sunday, began picking up again on Thursday afternoon. With no reply from the government, protests were set to begin on Friday morning and many people looked prepared to stay the night at the central government complex.
The government announced that the complex would be closed on Friday “due to security considerations.”
The extradition bill which was pushed by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam would allow suspected criminals apprehended in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China for trial. Critics say that the bill puts critics of China’s ruling Communist Party at risk of torture and unfair trials in the mainland and further chips away at the “one country, two systems” framework under which Hong Kong has been governed since 1997.
Under the terms of the British handover, Hong Kong is guaranteed the right to retain its own legal, economic and political system until 2047, however, the Chinese Communist Party under President Xi Jinping has been pushing ever-more aggressively to quiet independent voices in Hong Kong. Beijing has squelched all reporting on the protests in mainland media and accused foreign forces of stirring up disturbances in Hong Kong.
2 million people on estimate took part in Sunday’s march on government headquarters, which constituted the largest protest the semi-autonomous territory has seen in years.