HONG KONG (DPA) – Hong Kong protesters on Wednesday (June 26) attempted to attract international support for their battle against a controversial extradition Bill ahead of a G-20 summit in Japan with two new protests.

A first protest on Wednesday morning saw Hong Kongers silently march across the city’s business district and deliver petitions to 19 consulates of G-20 members, including the European Union, urging their countries to discuss the Bill during the two-day Osaka summit.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam suspended the Bill, which would allow the city to extradite criminal suspects to China, following mass protests.

The second protest, planned for Wednesday evening, will see residents gather together near the Hong Kong government’s headquarters.

It is being organised by Civil Human Rights Front, a group responsible for coordinating earlier this month two of the largest protests since the city returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

In a bid to capture further international attention, residents raised HK$5.4 million (S$937,000) to place ads about the extradition Bill on the front pages of leading international newspapers including the Financial Times and the New York Times. The campaign raised almost double its initial goal.

Many in Hong Kong, a former British colony, fear China’s legal system due to its high rate of convictions and reputation for arbitrary detention and politically motivated trials.

The government has pledged to stop work on the extradition Bill until it expires at the end of the legislative session next year, but protesters say they will not stop demonstrating until it is withdrawn permanently.

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