June 9, 2019

The Images Coming out of Hong Kong Are Simply Jawdropping

More than 1 million turn out to protest extradition law

Hong Kong, Sunday, June 9, 2019. Vincent Yu/AP Photo

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

More than a million people took to the streets in Hong Kong Sunday to protest a proposed law that would allow extraditions from the city to mainland China, a move critics say would give China power to remove political dissidents without input from local authorities and judges. Hong Kong’s judicial system is seen as far more independent than those elsewhere in China. The law backed by Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive, Carrie Lam, is viewed as a significant threat to political, artistic, and academic freedom in the former British colony.

When Britain relinquished control of Hong Kong in 1997 and handed it over to China, the Chinese government had pledged to allow the capitalist territory semi-autonomy for 50 years. But since then, China has been increasingly aggressive in asserting its power over Hong Kong. For the past three years, China’s security forces have kidnapped political opponents and business executives off the streets there without even the pretext of a legal extradition proceeding. Critics have said the proposed extradition law would simply legalize the kidnapping.

Legislators in Hong Kong are scheduled to vote on the proposed law later this month, a decision that was met with a silent protest last week by about 3,000 judges and lawyers concerned with the bill. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of mostly ordinary Hong Kong residents—from housewife clubs to artists to businesspeople—joined the gathering  and continued demonstrating well into the evening.

The New York Times correspondent in Hong Kong reported that the police were starting to use billy clubs late Sunday night to keep the protesters away from the Legislative Council offices. 

Sunday’s protests in Hong Kong came a week after the 30th anniversary of the protests at Tiananmen Square, when the Chinese government brutally massacred hundreds, possibly thousands, of students and other pro-democracy activists who were protesting the corruption of one-party rule. Protesters in Hong Kong held a vigil to commemorate the anniversary, but the Beijing was mute on the subject, as it has been in the past. Its only public comment on the event was to criticize Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for publicly honoring the fallen protesters.  

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate