More protests against Hong Kong’s extradition bill have been planned ahead of the G20 summit in Japan this week in an attempt to pressure the local government and Beijing.
One of the protest calls was made by a group of anonymous demonstrators on a Telegram messaging channel, urging people to gather at Chater Garden at 9am on Wednesday. They plan to walk to 19 foreign consulates to submit petition letters, urging them to press Chinese President Xi Jinping over Hong Kong issues at the G20 summit on Friday and Saturday.
According to a press advisory sent out by the protesters, they plan to visit the US consulate, EU office, and the UK consulate. They will then split into two groups, with one group going to consulates in Central including Japan, Germany and Canada; and a second group moving to Wan Chai to visit the consulates of Italy, Australia and Indonesia.
The protesters said they will be dressed in black and will walk silently, and participants may choose whether to wear a mask or not. They said the petition letter mainly talks about the development of the anti-extradition bill protests, and the “erosion of democracy and freedom” in Hong Kong by China.
“We will urge the countries to pressure China at the G20 to raise concerns over Hong Kong, to defend Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and free trade environment, and to protect the rights of their citizens to do business and to live in Hong Kong,” they said.
The protest plan came as Chinese assistant foreign minister Zhang Jun said China will not allow discussion of Hong Kong at the global meeting of world leaders.
“This proves that China wants to avoid Hong Kong issues, and that is why Hong Kong people should seriously call on foreign countries to raise this issue that Xi Jinping wants to avoid – to force Xi to review the current policy for Hong Kong,” the protesters said.
Legal amendments were proposed in February to allow the city to handle case-by-case extradition requests from jurisdictions with no prior agreements – most notably China. Lawyers, journalists, foreign politicians and businesses have raised concerns over the risk of residents being extradited to the mainland, which lacks human rights protections. The bill was suspended after mass protests, but not axed.
‘Democracy now’
After visiting the 19 consulates, protesters will join a second gathering – a rally hosted by the Civil Human Rights Front at Edinburgh Place in Central at 8pm on Wednesday. Front convener Jimmy Sham said the theme will be “Free Hong Kong, democracy now.”
“We are asking… leaders of the 20 countries – do Hong Kong people deserve democracy? Should Hong Kong people enjoy democracy? Can we have democracy now?” said Sham.
Sham said they will also restate their five demands of the Hong Kong government, including the withdrawal of the extradition bill, retraction of characterisation of the June 12 protest as a “riot,” an investigation into alleged police violence, to absolve all arrested protesters, and the resignation of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.
Meanwhile, a group of Hongkongers are set to protest in Osaka on Thursday.
A group of protesters tell HKFP that they will convene at the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan next week to raise awareness of the #NoToChinaExtradition movement. 👉 In full: https://t.co/kmLJLFCnSX pic.twitter.com/4ZIPZ3CN6L
— Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) June 22, 2019
Organised by Hong Kong and Japanese students, “Emergency Operation Freedom and Democracy Hong Kong” will convene at Namba Takashimaya Department Store at 7pm.
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