Protesters in Hong Kong won a huge victory on Saturday after the island’s chief executive Carrie Lam has said she will suspend a proposed extradition bill indefinitely.
Lam said in a press conference that she took the decision in response to widespread public unhappiness over the measure, which would enable authorities to send some suspects to stand trial in mainland China.
Many in the former British colony worried that the move would further erode cherished legal protections and freedoms promised by Beijing when it took control in 1997.
A mass protest over the issue had been planned for Sunday.
Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets in demonstrations earlier this week. Protests turned violent on Wednesday, adding to pressure on Lam to back down.
Hong Kong currently limits extraditions to jurisdictions with which it has existing agreements and to others on an individual basis. China has been excluded from those agreements because of concerns over its judicial independence and human rights record.
The proposed changes would have allowed for extradition requests from authorities in mainland China, Taiwan and Macau for suspects accused of criminal wrongdoings, such as murder and rape. The requests would then be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The move came after a 19-year-old Hong Kong man allegedly murdered his 20-year-old pregnant girlfriend while they were holidaying in Taiwan together in February last year. He then fled back to Hong Kong and could not be extradited to Taiwan because no extradition treaty exists between the two countries.
The protests have widely been seen as reflecting growing apprehension about relations with the Communist Party-ruled mainland, whose leader, Xi Jinping, has said he has zero tolerance for those demanding greater self-rule for Hong Kong.
The legislation has become a lightning rod for concerns about Beijing’s increasing control over the semi-autonomous territory.
Critics believe the extradition legislation would put Hong Kong residents at risk of being entrapped in China’s judicial system, in which opponents of Communist Party rule have been charged with economic crimes or ill-defined national security offences, and would not be guaranteed free trials.
Hong Kong is governed by China under a “one country, two systems” deal that guarantees it special autonomy, including freedom of assembly, free press and independent judiciary.