Legco Forced To Cancel Bill Debate Amid Siege

The Wednesday meeting of the Legislative Council where lawmakers were due to start debating contentious proposals to amend Hong Kong's extradition laws has been cancelled.

The announcement about this came around 6.30pm after the Legco secretariat initially said it was postponed to a "later time" as tens of thousands of protesters surrounded the Legco complex in opposition to the bill.

In that morning statement, the secretariat had said Legco President Andrew Leung made the decision to delay the meeting, but did not specify when it will eventually be held.

The decision was greeted by a roar of approval by tens of thousand of protesters outside Legco.

The evening announcement said Leung will determine the next date later.

Earlier pan-democrat lawmakers had sought a meeting with Leung to urge him to cancel the debate on the extradition bill, which had been scheduled to begin on Wednesday afternoon.

The convenor of the opposition camp, Claudia Mo, said Legco should call off the debate to pacify the protesters.

"You can see all the anger and the fury as displayed by the young. It's obvious Hong Kong is plunging into chaos," she said.

"Carrie Lam ... didn't see this coming. This should teach her a lesson and just drop this controversial bill and listen to the people," the lawmaker said. "Otherwise how is this going to end? Does she want bloodshed?"

Democratic Party councillor Lam Cheuk-ting also said the meeting should be cancelled in light of the mass protests, saying pushing ahead would be like pouring fuel onto the fire.

Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung agreed that the government must shelve its controversial proposals because tension in society is too high.

He warned the government that if it pushes ahead with the bill, the police would be forced to take action against protesters, and Hong Kong's youth would inevitably be injured in the process.

______________________________