HONG KONG (AP) Hong Kongs leader signaled Monday that her government will push ahead with amendments to extradition laws despite a massive protest against them that underscored fears about Chinas broadening footprint in the semi-autonomous territory.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam told reporters the legislation is important and will help Hong Kong uphold justice and fulfill its international obligations. Safeguards added in May will ensure that the legislation protects human rights, she said.

In what appeared to be Hong Kongs largest protest in more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of people marched through central Hong Kong on Sunday, three days before the Legislative Council is slated to take up the bill.

Hong Kong was guaranteed the right to retain its own social, legal and political systems for 50 years under an agreement reached before its 1997 return to China from British rule. But Chinas ruling Communist Party has been seen as increasingly reneging on that agreement by pushing through unpopular legal changes.