Over 1 Million Protest in the Streets

The entire Hennessy Road in Wan Chai and Causeway Bay filled with marchers

Last night at midnight I was watching for updates from San Francisco on the historic march in Hong Kong to protest against the proposed extradition bill.

Several of my friends and colleagues participated, and one told me about how hot it was, and how the police were making it difficult for them to march. I had to keep reminding her it was a tactic of the police to frustrate marchers by only allowing a trickle through an attempt to get protestors to give up and leave part way through the march so they wouldn't be counted; the best thing to do was to be patient. 

Before I went to sleep I read updates about how the MTR was clogged with people and some participants resorted in taking the Star Ferry from Kowloon to get over to the starting point in Victoria Park. Would there be 500,000 people like in 2003?

An aerial view of the protest march

It wasn't until the morning Pacific Standard Time that I was able to see the scale of the march from the pictures and it was amazing to see Hennessy Road and Queensway completely covered in people wearing white T-shirts with sprinkles of yellow umbrellas. Organizers say 1.03 million people came out, or one in seven Hongkongers.

My colleagues and friends marched for hours in the heat, and we impressed those relatively new to the city that the high temperatures and humidity are not enough to deter people from fighting for what they truly believe in.

We came out on the streets in 2014 and now five years later we were back again. Some lament that we haven't achieved much, but I'd like to think we are not afraid of holding the government accountable for its actions. We do not have a direct vote for our leader, so marches are the next best thing we can do.

Unfortunately there were a few scuffles with police -- some really wanted to restart the Occupy Movement again, while others clashed with police officers at the government headquarters at Tamar, marring what was practically a violent-free protest march hours earlier.

The government has pushed people too far again, inspiring some to test the police to see how far they will go -- some officers had no qualms using pepper spray again. Do we really need these kinds of confrontations? The more radical we are in our actions, the more the government (and Beijing) feel Hong Kong residents need to be put in their place.

People were marching for several hours in the heat

Nevertheless, this morning Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was unmoved by the unprecedented turnout for the march yesterday and vowed she would not quit and the bill would be passed on Wednesday.

"For those who have expressed their views, whether you are agreeing or disagreeing with us, I want to thank every one of you because... the scrutiny of our work is an important factor to enhance governance of Hong Kong," she said.

We have been scrutinizing your work, and we don't agree with it, Mrs Lam... what are you going to do about it?

She is willing to further water down the extradition bill, but this is not the point -- the bill was not given proper due process, making Hong Kong residents even more suspicious and untrusting of the government. Is this what she wants?

We shall see what happens on Wednesday...