Tens Of Thousands Continue Siege In Admiralty

Tens of thousands of protesters opposed to the government's plans to change extradition laws continued to occupy major streets in Admiralty on Wednesday, in scenes reminiscent of the Occupy protests five years ago.

But even as the stand-off continued through midday, there were no major clashes, even though police had used pepper spray to push back protesters on at least two occasions.

Democratic Party lawmakers Roy Kwong and Ted Hui put themselves between protesters and police at the intersection of Lung Wo Road and Tim Wa Avenue, which leads to the Chief Executive’s office.

Hui hoped their presence would make it harder for the situation to descend into violence.

While hundreds of people stayed overnight in the vicinity of the Legco building, the number of protesters surged early in the morning. By midday the crowd had swelled considerably in the area with more and more arriving.

Following a relatively calm and quiet night, at around 8am, a shout came from the growing crowd, in an apparent cue for dozens of masked protesters to sprint onto Lung Wo Road.

The action came so quickly that the demonstrators surrounded a police van and several private vehicles that were on the road at that time, leaving them unable to move.

Half an hour later, thousands more took over Harcourt Road. Protesters moved metal barriers and anything else they could find from a nearby construction site onto the road to create makeshift barricades.

The entire area is packed with demonstrators, including the elevated walkways leading to the Legco complex. However, the building itself is on lockdown, with the council having issued an amber alert since midnight – meaning access is denied to all members of the public.

The Legco forecourt is completely closed off, and large numbers of police officers are standing guard.

Officers are maintaining a heavy presence in the entire area, though they have made no attempt so far to disperse the protesters. Officers wearing helmets and carrying shields and batons are standing by, metres away from masked, umbrella-wielding protesters.

Officers implored the crowds to remain calm and not to use violence.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui addressed the crowd shortly after they took over Harcourt Road, urging them not to charge police cordons and to show restraint. He also urged police not to provoke the demonstrators, and not to use force to try to disperse the crowd.

The protest came as legislators were due to start the second reading of the contentious extradition bill – containing legal changes that would enable the government to hand over crime suspects to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong has no formal extradition treaty.

While the proposed legal changes apply to all such jurisdictions, protesters are especially concerned that Hong Kong people could easily be sent to the mainland, where they fear their right to a fair trial may not be respected.

Legco later announced that the meeting would be postponed until further notice.

Government officials have repeatedly given assurances that extradition requests will be vetted both by local courts and by the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, and have offered some concessions such as raising the bar of extraditable offences to those that are punishable by at least seven years imprisonment.

But that has not assuaged the widespread fears, and a protest march on Sunday opposing the bill saw a turnout of hundreds of thousands of people – organisers say over a million took part – in by far the biggest rally here since the handover.

That evening, the protest turned violent, with running clashes taking place in Admiralty, and demonstrators briefly taking over key streets in the area before being chased off by police.

______________________________