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Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader on Monday refused to scrap a controversial plan to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland, a day after huge crowds came out to oppose the proposal. Striking a defiant tone after the city's largest protest since the 1997 handHong Kong leader refuses to scrap extradition bill despite huge rally
Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader on Monday refused to scrap a controversial plan to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland, a day after huge crowds came out to oppose the proposal. Striking a defiant tone after the city's largest protest since the 1997 handover, chief executive Carrie Lam said the legislature would debate the bill on Wednesday as planned, rejecting calls to delay or withdraw the law. The decision sets her administration on a collision course with opponents who have vowed to ramp up their protests if their demands are not met. Sunday saw huge crowds march in blazing summer heat through the streets of the financial hub's main island in a noisy, colourful demonstration calling on the government to scrap its planned extradition law. Organisers said as many as a million people turned out -- the largest protest in three decades and the biggest by far since the city's return to Chinese rule. Lam's government is pushing a bill through the legislature that would allow extraditions to any jurisdiction with which it does not already have a treaty -- including mainland China. Authorities say it is needed to plug loopholes and to stop the city being a bolthole for... Read more