The Basic Law guarantees freedom of assembly, but the Public Order Ordinance requires organizers to give police seven days’ notice before protests and to obtain official assent.
The government has repeatedly used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to ban public assemblies, including the annual June 4 vigil to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which in 2022 was banned for the third year in a row; authorities closed much of Victoria Park, patrolled nearby streets, and ultimately arrested six individuals. In January 2022, Chow Hang-tung, former vice chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKASPDMC), received a prison term for inciting an “unauthorized assembly” after she encouraged others to individually commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre via social media messages in 2021. While that conviction was overturned in December 2022, Chow remained in custody on two NSL-related charges.
The territory’s national security police targeted the prodemocracy League of Social Democrats (LSD) ahead of Chinese president Xi’s June–July 2022 visit to Hong Kong to prevent protest plans from moving forward. Avery Ng, the LSD’s former chairman, reported he was under house arrest in late June. In September, the LSD was warned to not organize on the “sensitive date” of October 1, when the mainland celebrates National Day.
In March 2022, Hong Kong police fined three people attending a pro-Ukraine demonstration for violating COVID-19 restrictions. Pro-Ukraine demonstrations were also held earlier that month but were socially distanced.