On Sunday, an estimated 1m people
came out onto the streets of Hong Kong
to protest against a proposed extradition
law that would allow the mainland Chinese government
to ask for people it accuses of various crimes
to be sent back from Hong Kong to mainland China.
Now, these protests, if that 1m figure is accurate,
would be, by far, the largest protests
that we've seen in Hong Kong since the former British colony
was handed back to China in 1997.
Protests went on until the early hours of Monday morning.
And around midnight, amidst claims
of police heavy-handedness, there
were some violent clashes.
Several people were arrested.
The scale of these protests shows just how
little faith many people here in Hong Kong
have in the mainland political and legal system.
It also shows how worried people are about the proposed
clauses in this law that would allow people not only living
in Hong Kong but also just passing through Hong Kong
to potentially be sent back to the mainland
if they're accused of a whole range of different crimes.
What's also interesting about these protests and the clash
over this particular law, this extradition law,
is that many business organisations,
including many foreign business organisations,
are deeply opposed to it.
They feel there's potential for this law
to be used to persecute people involved in business disputes
or people who are speaking out against maybe
economic policy in Beijing to be persecuted,
which is what we sometimes see in the mainland Chinese
political and legal system.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has shown that he has no intention
to back down in the face of popular unrest
and popular disapproval.
So more than likely what we will see is that this law will pass
and things will continue to deteriorate here in Hong Kong.