HONG KONG — For the second Sunday in a row, hundreds of thousands of people in Hong Kong demonstrated against a proposed

law
that would allow extraditions to mainland China, despite the local government’s announcement a day earlier that it was indefinitely
suspending the bill.

The mass protests have been among the largest in Hong Kong’s history, and another sign of rising fear and anger over the erosion of the
civil liberties that have long set the semiautonomous territory apart from the Chinese mainland.

The relationship between Hong Kong and the central government in Beijing is complicated and evolving. Here’s the key background.

Is Hong Kong part of China?

Yes, but it’s not that simple.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997 under a policy known as “one country, two systems,” which
promised the territory a high degree of autonomy. The policy has helped preserve Hong Kong’s civil service, independent courts,
freewheeling press, open internet and other features that distinguish it from the Chinese mainland.

But that autonomy, guaranteed under a mini-constitution known as the Basic Law, expires in 2047. Well before Hong Kong is set to lose
its unique status, however, the Basic Law has been weakened as China’s ruling Communist Party and its security apparatus increasingly
encroach on Hong Kong — for example, by abducting booksellers and a Chinese-born billionaire.

Why is Beijing meddling in Hong Kong?

The pressure reflects a broader tightening of controls across China under President Xi Jinping, who came to power in 2012 and
has pursued critics with increasing boldness.

Hong Kong is an obvious target because it has a vocal community of pro-democracy activists and lawmakers. Tens of thousands took
part in a movement demanding free elections that seized control of downtown streets for 11 weeks in late 2014, and large crowds attend
an annual vigil that commemorates Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square.

[The extradition bill’s suspension is China’s biggest political retreatunder President Xi Jinping.]

But the Basic Law guarantees that the Chinese authorities cannot stifle dissent in Hong Kong with an iron fist, as they do across the
mainland and in the autonomous regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.Analysts say that has forced Beijing to chip away at the independence of
Hong Kong’s institutions by other means — for example, by pressing the extradition plan.

What is the extradition plan?

The bill would allow Hong Kong to detain and transfer people wanted in countries and territories with which it has no formal
extradition agreements, including Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, has said the new law is
urgently needed to prosecute a Hong Kong man who is wanted in Taiwan for the murder of his girlfriend.

Critics contend that the law would allow virtually anyone in the city to be picked up and detained in
mainland China, a country in which judges must follow the orders of the Communist Party. They fear
the new law would target not just criminals but political activists as well.

The extradition plan applies to 37 crimes. That excludes political ones, but critics fear the legislation
would essentially legalize the sort of abductions to the mainland that have taken place in Hong Kong
in recent years. (The mainland authorities are typically not permitted to operate here.)

Under the law, the chief executive would need to approve an extradition request before an arrest
warrant is issued. A Hong Kong court would also be empowered to check that there is a basic case
against a suspect.

Yet Hong Kong’s subordinate status to the mainland would make it extremely difficult for a local
leader to reject an extradition request from her superiors.

Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, has said it will not comply with any extradition agreement that
defines it as a part of China. And many in Hong Kong — where the government has ousted opposition
lawmakers and rejected demands for free elections — see the extradition plan as the endgame of a
long battle to disable dissent and political opposition in their city.

Who opposes the plan?

The plan has prompted petitions from people across Hong Kongwho fear they could end up in a
mainland legal system where the Communist Party routinely prosecutes dissidents and others for
political reasons.

An April demonstration against the plan was the city’s biggest in five years, and anger over it led
to scuffles in Hong Kong’s legislature last month.

The Sunday protests this month, both of which stretched for more than a mile through canyons of
downtown skyscrapers, may have been the largest here since 2003, when half a million marchers
demonstrated against a Beijing-backed package of national security laws prohibiting sedition,
subversion and treason against the Chinese government. That legislation was shelved in response to
concerns that it threatened Hong Kong’s civil liberties.

Opposition to the extradition bill is even higher, according to a recent poll by the University of Hong
Kong.

What happens next?

A scheduled debate on the extradition bill was delayed last Wednesday after protesters gathered
outside the legislature, some of them clashing with the police. The full legislature is not scheduled to
be in session again until this Wednesday.

Because pro-Beijing lawmakers hold 43 of 70 seats in the Hong Kong legislature, the bill would be
likely to pass if it came to a vote. In announcing the suspension of the bill on Saturday, Ms. Lam
emphasized that it was not being withdrawn outright, as protesters are demanding.

What’s the solution?

Who knows? But there have been compromise suggestions
floated by politicians on both sides.
After hardliners from within the pro-establishment camp
threatened the nuclear option of dissolving the bills committee
and sending the bill straight to the council for a full vote,
independent Paul Tse Wai-chun proposed the creation of a
special task force to find a way forward.
However, the pro-democracy camp refuses to accept that, and
there are also splits within the pro-establishment bloc on how to
proceed.
On the pan-democrats’ side, To has urged the creation of a
tripartite meeting with the government joining both sides in
trying to hash out an agreement. However, the government has
expressed its unwillingness to be involved, saying it is for the
two rival factions to sort out.