Today (Apr 28), around 100 thousand Hongkongers took to the streets in bright sunshine and protested against the proposed extradition law amendment which could extradite anyone who set foot on Hong Kong soil to Communist China for trial. Wayne Chan, convener of the Students Independence Union, opines, "This ordinance is the last straw that will end HK's freedom and one country two systems. For the sake of Hongkongers, we have to try our best to defend Hong Kong so that the next generation will be able to live in a democratic and free environment." Apart from Western and local businessmen, HKBNews notes that the amendment is particularly threatening to localists and pro-independence activists and Westerner researchers and journalists covering them, for in the Chinese version of the Ordinance, "incitement to commit genocide" is inaccurately translated as 煽惑他人進行危害種族 (lit. incitement to commit ethnic-endangering), probably for the purpose of making the term much more inclusive in implicating HK dissidents who advocate segregation between Hongkongers and Mainlanders.
Last year, Security Minister John Lee banned Hong Kong National Party partly on the ground that it incited hatred and potential violence towards Mainland Chinese, which is equivalent to incitement to commit ethnic-endangering.
The proposed amendment, if enacted, may be even more dangerous than the enactment of Article 23 (National Security Law) of the Basic Law, for Hong Kong citizens, if charged under Article 23, will still be tried in Hong Kong, and if convicted, will still do their time in Hong Kong, rather than Communist China, where the entire legal system is at the service of the Party.
The proposed changes to the law were ostensibly sparked by a Hong Kong teenager allegedly killing his girlfriend in Taiwan and absconding home last year, as there is no extradition agreement between HK and Taiwan and/or China, but Taiwan has made it clear that they disapprove of this bill.