Protesters fearing an erosion of Hong Kong’s legal autonomy blocked access to a government office building for nearly two hours Monday and plan more demonstrations to draw the attention of leaders attending the G-20 summit this week.
Earlier, one of the main protest groups announced a demonstration planned on Wednesday to try to draw the attention of world leaders attending the Group of 20 summit in Japan. Kelvin Ho, one of the group’s several leaders, said the protest was meant to “urge the international community to give stress on Beijing that we need democracy.”
Hong Kong’s government “has taken a series of measures to safeguard fairness and justice of society and to block loopholes in the legal system. We believe what they have done is completely necessary and the central government supports these measures,” he said. Hong Kong has a separate legal system from the rest of China under an agreement struck before Beijing took control of the former British colony in 1997. The extradition legislation would enable some suspects to be sent from Hong Kong to stand trial in mainland Chinese courts.