Protesters jam Hong Kong streets to rally against China extradition bill

The strike has been endorsed by more than 1,000 small businesses and the 190,000-member Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, which called on "all workers to suspend work and join the assembly."Michael Vidler, a human rights lawyer based in Hong Kong, said he told his employees that the firm would back them if they chose to join the strike.Vidler told NBC News that "people are terrified, in my view rightly so," that the legislation would remove the "fire wall" between Hong Kong and China.The heavy police presence didn’t stop Andes Yeung, 40, from showing his displeasure for the bill."After this passes, Hong Kong is not the Hong Kong we know," said Yeung, who works as an administrative executive at a retail company.At one point on Wednesday, dozens of protesters opened colorful umbrellas in what appeared to be a call back to the so-called Umbrella Revolution protests of 2014, when changes in Hong Kong's electoral laws were rammed through that were seen as highly favorable to Beijing.The chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, has tried to allay concerns by introducing amendments that she says would add safeguards to the legislation.Morgan Ortagus, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said Monday that the United States had expressed "grave concern" about the measure, which she said could "undermine Hong Kong's autonomy and negatively impact the territory's longstanding protections of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democratic values.""We are also concerned that the amendments could damage Hong Kong's business environment and subject our citizens residing in or visiting Hong Kong to China's capricious judicial system," she said.Justin Solomon reported from Hong Kong, Alex Johnson from Los Angeles, and Alexander Smith from London.© 2019 NBC UNIVERSAL