Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam defends extradition law

Bloomberg

Hong Kong’s leader said she would press ahead with legislation to end a ban on extraditions to mainland China, despite opponents staging one of the largest mass protests since the 2014
Occupy movement.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam reaffirmed her plan to pass by the end of the legislative session in July a bill allowing one-time transfers of criminal suspects between the former British colony and other jurisdictions.
The government said in an earlier statement that the legislation was necessary “to plug the loopholes” preventing extraditions to places such as mainland China, Macau and Taiwan.
“I realised at the very outset that this is not an easy task,” Lam told reporters. “This is going to be very controversial and contentious and that’s why we have taken up this task with very serious attention.”
The comments came after as many as 130,000 marched to the city’s Legislative Council building to protest against the bill, with many participants calling for Lam’s resignation.