The Pulse：Extradition bill: discussion with Law Society Mark Daly & 30th anniversary of June 4th

Last Thursday, in the hope of reducing public opposition to its controversial extradition bill, the government announced three main changes. Two of them were in response to proposals from the business community and pro-Beijing lawmakers. Secretary for Security John Lee says these are the final concessions. The Chief Executive Carrie Lam insists that she won’t withdraw the bill because so much work has been done on it. Meanwhile, former governor Chris Patten said in a video statement that the government’s claim that the proposed bill plugged a “legal loophole” was “absolute nonsense”. He also said the changes will “strike a terrible blow against the rule of law”, against Hong Kong’s stability and security, and diminish its status as an international trading hub. With us to talk about the matter is Mark Daly, council member of The Law Society of Hong Kong and well known human rights lawyer.

In the run-up to the 30th anniversary of the June 4th crackdown in 1989, mainland activists, and the Tiananmen Mothers, were forced to take vacations and put under heavy surveillance, and the internet was even more severely censored. The current official line is that the crackdown was a “correct policy” to end “political turbulence”. The Global Times described it as a “vaccination” for Chinese society, an “immunity against any major political turmoil in the future”. In Hong Kong, former Tiananmen Square protest leader Feng Congde was barred from entering the SAR thus preventing him from attending the candlelight vigil. Beijing wants the world to forget; Hongkongers want the world to remember. Organisers say there was a massive turnout of 180,000 people for the candlelight vigil in Victoria Park this year.