Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of one of Hong Kong’s main tourism districts on Sunday to explain to mainland Chinese visitors their opposition to an extradition bill that has plunged the city into political turmoil, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Protests against the now-suspended bill have drawn millions of people onto the streets of the former British colony in recent weeks in what has become the greatest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he took power in 2012.
The bill, which would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party, has triggered outrage across broad sections of Hong Kong amid concerns it threatens the much-cherished rule of law that underpins the city’s international financial status.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, including the right to protest and an independent judiciary.
Demonstrators besieged and ransacked the legislative building in the heart of the city on Monday before they were driven back by police firing tear gas.
The protests have received little coverage in mainland China, where censors have blocked most news of the largest demonstrations since the bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Protesters marched through Tsim Sha Tsui, a popular shopping destination dotted with luxury shops, on Sunday to try to take their message directly to mainland Chinese tourists for the first time.
The short march was slated to finish at the city’s high-speed rail station that connects Hong Kong to the mainland, a potentially sensitive spot after part of the facility came under Chinese jurisdiction in September in another move that raised concerns about Hong Kong’s promised autonomy.