“This fight against extradition to mainland China is seen as the violation of the last firewall protecting Hong Kong from Beijing,” said Victoria Hui, an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. The bill has released years of collective rage not only against a political oligarchy, rigged to disenfranchise the great majority of the metropolis’ 7.2 million highly educated citizens, but also against the looming menace of Beijing. But the protesters are not pacified by a deferral. Consecutive weeks of unrest forced the government to suspend the controversial proposal. Opposition to the bill, which critics fear would enable Beijing to round up local dissidents and detractors, has united business owners, families, church groups and bespectacled students, galvanizing them into millions-strong marches. But it has since swelled into a broader struggle for democracy, and a repudiation of Chinese sovereignty over the enclave. The political crisis gripping Asia’s financial capital this summer kicked off over a bill that would allow, for the first time, extradition to mainland China.
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