Hong Kong's government is backing down and suspending its highly unpopular extradition bill after a week of large-scale demonstrations and political violence in the streets. The government maintains the legislation's intention of plugging legal loopholes is still valid. Many, however, feared it would allow Communist China to demand the extradition of Hong Kong opponents of the regime to face unfair trails on the mainland.
Hong Kong is self-governing, but is growing ever closer to Communist China and will eventually merge with it in 2047, 50 years after the 1997 British hand-over control to China with a guarantee of "one nation, two systems" governing the island city-state.
At a press conference Saturday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, using the words "suspension" and "halting" interchangeably, admitted her government had not communicated the need for the bill well enough. "I feel deep sorrow and regret that deficiencies in our work – and various other factors – have stirred up substantial controversies," she said.
The reversal came in the face of two massive protests last week, one ending in violence and injuries to 80 people.
Organisers of the historic march on June 9, the Civil Human Rights Front, and the pro-democracy Confederation of Trade Unions have vowed to carry on with another march this Sunday.
[FULL STORY HERE]
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