Huge Hong Kong protest against extradition bill

Hong Kong witnessed its largest street protest in at least 15 years on Sunday as crowds massed against plans to allow extraditions to China, a proposal that has sparked a major backlash against the city’s pro Beijing leadership.

At least 150,000 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 city’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 for the first time. Police said at least 153,000 had started the march, but they had yet to calculate the crowd’s peak figure, with new people still joining hours after it began.

Historically, the police give much lower figures than organisers, but even this preliminary estimate would make it the largest street protest since 2003.

Dense crowds chanting “Scrap the evil law!” and “Oppose China extradition!” stretched for kilometres.

Coffee shop owner Marco Ng, 26, said he was closing his store to join the march.

“Our city matters more than our business,” he said.

“If we don’t speak out, there’s no way the government will listen to our concerns.”

The last time the city saw a protest crowd of similar size was in 2003 when a massive demonstration forced the government to shelve a deeply unpopular national security law.

The extradition plans have sparked an opposition that unites a similarly wide demographic.

In recent weeks, lawyers have held sombre marches dressed in black, anonymous senior judges have given critical media interviews and the city’s two main legal groups – the Law Society and the Bar Association – have urged a rethink.

Business figures are also rattled, with multiple chambers of commerce and commercial groups expressing alarm. –