(CBN) – An extradition bill that would have sent criminal suspects to communist China for prosecution seems to be dead for now, but Hong Kong’s student protest movement against the heavy-handed rule of Beijing has come back to life. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has apologized for the extradition bill that set off massive protests but said she would not resign. She only backed down after millions turned out to protest what they believed to be an attempt by China to further erode its independence. As a British

colony, Hong Kong had political, religious and economic freedom and it grew to one of the major financial powerhouses in the world. When the UK turned Hong Kong over to China in 1997, those freedoms were supposed to be protected, but residents see the extradition law as one in a series of attempts to take them away. “The extradition law really is a threat to the legal and judicial independence of Hong Kong from mainland China,” says CBN News Asia Correspondent Lucille Talusan. “And this goes against the agreement made during the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to mainland China.” READ MORE