Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader on Monday refused to scrap a controversial plan to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland, a day after record crowds came out to oppose the proposal.

Striking a defiant tone after the city's largest protest since the 1997 handover, chief executive Carrie Lam said the legislature would debate the bill on Wednesday as planned, rejecting calls to delay or withdraw the law.

The decision sets her administration on a collision course with opponents who called on supporters to rally outside parliament on Wednesday or hold strikes.

"She's really pushing Hong Kong towards the brink of a precipice," pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told reporters.

Sunday saw huge crowds march through the streets of the financial hub's main island in a noisy, colourful demonstration calling on the government to scrap its planned extradition law.

Organisers said as many as a million people turned out -- the largest protest in three decades and the biggest by far since the city's return to Chinese rule.

Lam's government is pushing a bill through the legislature that would allow extraditions to any jurisdiction with which it does not already have a treaty -- including mainland China.

Authorities say it is needed to plug loopholes and to stop the city being a bolthole for fugitives.

But the proposals have birthed an opposition that unites a wide cross-section of the city, with critics fearing the law will entangle people in China's opaque and politicised courts.

- Incredulous response -

Lam said Monday that the huge rallies proved that Hong Kong's freedom of speech was still protected.

She said her administration had already made concessions to ensure political cases would not be considered and that human rights safeguards met international standards.

"We have been listening and listening very attentively," she said.

Opponents say she is ignoring them.

"Yesterday 1.03 million of us marched and the government is still indifferent, turning a deaf ear to the people. This government has become a dictatorship," lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen told reporters.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the overwhelming turnout "clearly shows the public's opposition," and urged Hong Kong leaders to engage a "broad range of local and international stakeholders" on the way forward.

Reiterating concern that the extradition law would erode Hong Kong's special status, Ortagus said she worried that the amendments "could damage Hong Kong's business environment and subject our citizens residing or visiting in Hong Kong to China's capricious judicial system."

Political analyst Dixon Sing warned Lam could be facing "political suicide" if she pushed for a showdown after such huge demonstrations.

"In the short run, the Hong Kong government led by Carrie Lam will suffer a worsening legitimacy crisis," he told AFP. "Fewer and fewer people will trust her and the entire cabinet."

But he said much would rest on whether the public comes out to back further protests or strikes.

Sunday's rally was peaceful until shortly after midnight, when pockets of protesters fought running battles with police in chaotic and violent scenes.

Nineteen people were arrested, police said, mostly men in their twenties.

Hong Kong authorities said they believed the violence was planned by organised groups.

"It's easy to tell they are organised, premeditated, prepared, radical and violent people," said Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the Organized Crime And Triad Bureau.

There was a heavy police presence outside parliament on Monday as officials moved twisted remains of metal barricades and debris left by the overnight skirmishes.

- Years of tumult -

Hong Kong has been shaken by political unrest in recent years as fears soar that a resurgent Beijing is trying to quash the city's unique freedoms and culture.

Under the 50-year handover deal with Britain, China agreed to a "one country, two systems" model where Hong Kong would keep freedom of speech and assembly rights that are unheard of on the authoritarian mainland.

But many locals believe Beijing is now reneging on that deal, aided by the city's loyalist local government.

In 2014 mass protests calling for the right to directly elect Hong Kong's leader paralysed parts of the city for more than two months, with frequent clashes between police and demonstrators.

Two years later violence broke out in the crowded Mongkok district when police tried to close down unlicensed street vendors. Key protest leaders have since been jailed or barred from politics.

Many young Hong Kongers have hardened their attitudes towards China after failing to win any concessions since the 2014 protests.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Monday that Beijing "will continue to firmly support" the Hong Kong administration, adding that the government will "firmly oppose any outside interference in the legislative affairs" of the city.

In an editorial, Beijing's state-run China Daily called the law a "sensible, legitimate" piece of legislation, and said "some Hong Kong residents have been hoodwinked by the opposition camp and their foreign allies into supporting the anti-extradition campaign".

Why is Hong Kong's China extradition plan so controversial?
Hong Kong (AFP) June 10, 2019 - Hong Kong witnessed its largest protest since the city's 1997 handover to China on Sunday as hundreds of thousands came out to oppose plans to allow extraditions to the mainland.

The crowds wanted the city's pro-Beijing leaders to scrap the proposals -- but there is little sign of that happening, and the issue has plunged the city into a political crisis.

What's the law all about?

The city's government is pushing a bill through the legislature that would allow extraditions to any jurisdiction with which it does not already have a treaty -- including mainland China.

They say it is needed to plug existing loopholes and prevent the city from becoming a bolthole for fugitives.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says safeguards are in place to protect the city's free speech, and to ensure political cases will not be affected by the extradition law.

She also argues that the law meets international standards for human rights, and that only serious crimes that carry sentences above seven years will be considered.

Why do people object?

Fears centre on getting tangled up in China's opaque and politicised courts -- whether it be the city's 7.3 million inhabitants or those just passing through the airport.

A broad cross-section of society has opposed the legislation, including lawyers and influential legal bodies, business figures and chambers of commerce, journalists, activists and western envoys.

Then on Sunday some one million people marched against the bill, according to organisers, in unprecedented scenes.

Hong Kong's appointed leaders are increasingly perceived to be doing the bidding of Beijing, and there is little trust in their assurances that the law won't impact the city's prized independent judiciary or its wider freedoms.

Jimmy Sham, convenor of the group behind Sunday's protests, said young people felt "powerless" in the face of a "brutal" government.

Doesn't China run Hong Kong anyway?

Yes. But under the 1997 handover agreement with Britain, China has agreed to a 50-year deal where Hong Kong is able to retain key liberties, such as freedom of speech and an independent judiciary.

The city's courts and rule of law, built around the British legal system, are key to the financial hub's economic success.

What's the rush?

The idea of Hong Kong being a bolthole for fugitives had never been high up the political agenda. But after a Hong Kong man murdered his girlfriend while on holiday in Taiwan and fled back home, local authorities seized on the case to call for an overhaul of the law.

Despite confessing to Hong Kong police, authorities were unable to extradite him because the two territories do not share an agreement.

The extradition law was born, covering any place Hong Kong doesn't have a specific agreement with -- including mainland China for the first time.

But critics say the Taiwanese case is a Trojan horse to please Beijing.

Does the bill have supporters?

Certainly. Outside of Hong Kong's local government, the bill has received public backing from senior party officials in China and state media.

A petition run by a group that supports the bill has collected more than 800,000 signatures, while the Hong Kong government has a comfortable majority of lawmakers who have say they will back the bill.

But proponents have not managed to get people onto the streets in anything like the numbers seen in Sunday's opposition protest, making it hard to gauge genuine public support.

What's going to happen next?

There are no signs of the tension diffusing. On Monday Carrie Lam refused to delay or scrap the extradition bill, and said her administration had already made major concessions to protect human rights.

Hong Kong police said they will track down protestors behind violence in the early hours of Monday morning.

But opponents of the law have also doubled down, announcing plans for fresh protests on Wednesday alongside calls for a city-wide strike.

And Beijing has added its own rhetoric to the mix, attacking "foreign forces" for trying to disrupt a "sensible, legitimate" piece of legislation.

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Violence mars end of huge Hong Kong protest against China extradition
Hong Kong (AFP) June 9, 2019
A huge peaceful protest in Hong Kong against controversial plans to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland descended into violence early Monday as police fought running battles with small pockets of demonstrators. Organisers said more than a million people took part in the Sunday march - the largest protest since Hong Kong's 1997 handover to China - confronting the city's pro-Beijing leadership with a major political crisis. The city government is pushing a bill through the legislature tha ... read more