Havoc erupts in Hong Kong legislature

HONG KONG » Anger over a proposal that would let people suspected of crimes be extradited to mainland China led to pandemonium in Hong Kong’s legislature Saturday, as lawmakers scuffled and at least one was carried out of the chamber on a stretcher.

It was the most vivid display to date of the deep divide in the semiautonomous Chinese city over the legislation. Tens of thousands of people marched on the Legislative Council in April to protest the bill, the largest demonstration in Hong Kong since the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in 2014.

The bill would let Hong Kong’s government send people suspected of crimes to jurisdictions with which it does not have extradition agreements. The government said it is urgently needed because a Hong Kong man accused of killing his girlfriend in Taiwan in 2018 could otherwise go free.

Both sides of the dispute agree that the man should face trial. But opposition lawmakers, rights groups, lawyers’ associations, foreign governments and prominent voices in Hong Kong’s powerful business community have expressed concern that the extradition bill would subject people in the city to the mainland Chinese legal system, which is opaque and heavily influenced by the governing Communist Party.

Pro-democracy opposition lawmakers have tried to stop the bill, proposing a narrower alternative that would allow extradition only to Taiwan. The opposition, which lost much of its clout after several pro-democracy lawmakers were disqualified in 2016 and 2017, is waging a procedural fight against the proposal.

The chaos erupted Saturday as two committees tried to meet simultaneously to consider the bill — one led by the opposition and the other by pro-Beijing lawmakers, each claiming that the other was illegitimate. Gary Fan, a member of the opposition camp, was taken out of the legislature on a stretcher after he fell while trying to take a microphone away from another politician. His office said he was conscious and awaiting treatment at a hospital.