Protests over contested bill turn violent
HONG KONG — Riot police officers used pepper spray and water cannon against huge crowds of protesters who blocked roads around Hong Kong’s legislature on Wednesday morning, as lawmakers prepared to debate a contentious bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of them young people in black T-shirts, dragged heavy metal barriers into the road and flooded across lanes of traffic. The scenes instantly recalled the start of the Umbrella Movement protests of 2014, in which thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators blocked major Hong Kong thoroughfares for months.
Those protests, calling for more open elections in the semiautonomous Chinese territory, ultimately failed to win concessions from the Hong Kong government. The city’s leaders said this week that they would press on with the extradition bill, despite an enormous march on Sunday opposing it.
“Hong Kong is a civilized city, but they don’t listen to the citizens,” said Grace Tsang, 25, one of the protesters. She wore sunglasses and a mask to protect herself against pepper spray.
With protesters thronging the area around the legislative building, officials said debate on the bill, which had been set to begin late in the morning, would be delayed, at least briefly.
Under the bill, people suspected of crimes could be sent to jurisdictions including mainland China, whose judicial system is subordinate to the ruling Communist Party. The president of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, Andrew Leung, said Tuesday that lawmakers were likely to vote on the bill by the end of next week, a faster timetable than had been expected.
At a briefing with reporters Tuesday, police officials had said they were prepared to deal with unrest. “The force will not tolerate any kind of violence or the incitement of the use of violence,” said Kong Wing-cheung, a police spokesman.
Several hundred protesters had arrived overnight, streaming into areas near the government offices. Half a dozen police vans with flashing red lights parked near the protesters and riot police officers with helmets, batons and shields stood nearby.
Leung said Tuesday that he expected the extradition bill to go to a vote on June 20 after a total of more than 60 hours of debate, adding that “the case is pressing and has to be handled as soon as possible.”