HONG KONG — The head of Hong Kong’s legislature said that lawmakers must vote by the end of next week on a contentious bill that would allow extraditions to China, rejecting demands for a delay despite mass protests over the weekend opposing the legislation.
The decision, announced Tuesday by the president of the Legislative Council, Andrew Leung, was set to further inflame tensions in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory, after hundreds of thousands of people turned out on Sunday for one of the largest protests in the city’s recent history.
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Residents were planning protests, strikes and a transportation slowdown for Wednesday, when lawmakers are set to debate the bill. The city’s police force said no violence would be tolerated at any public events, and The South China Morning Post, a local newspaper, reported that thousands of additional officers had been mobilized.
Mr. Leung said that the bill would go to a vote on June 20 after 66 hours of debate, adding “the case is pressing and has to be handled as soon as possible.” The measure is likely to pass in the local legislature, where pro-Beijing lawmakers hold 43 of 70 seats.
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