The 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests were a series of demonstrations against the Hong Kong government’s introduction of a bill to amend the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance in regard to extradition. It was the largest series of demonstrations in the history of Hong Kong.
The protests began with a sit-in at the government headquarters on 15 March 2019 and a demonstration attended by hundreds of thousands on 9 June 2019, followed by a gathering outside the Legislative Council Complex on 12 June which stalled the bill’s second reading. On 16 June, just one day after the Hong Kong government suspended the bill, a larger protest took place to push for its complete withdrawal. The protest was also in response to the perceived excessive use of force by the Hong Kong Police Force on 12 June. As the protests progressed, activists laid out five key demands. Police inaction during the 2019 Yuen Long attack and brutality in 2019 Prince Edward station attack further escalated the protests.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam withdrew the bill on 4 September, but refused to concede to the other four demands. A month later, she invoked emergency powers to implement an anti-mask law, escalating the confrontations. The storming of the Legislative Council in July 2019, deaths of Chow Tsz-lok and Luo Changqing, two shooting incidents of protesters, one of whom was unarmed, and sieges of the Chinese University and the Polytechnic University in November 2019 were landmark events. The unprecedented landslide victory of the pro-democracy camp in the November local election was widely regarded as a de facto referendum on the city’s governance.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 largely silenced the protests. Tensions mounted again in May 2020 after Beijing’s decision to promulgate a national security bill for Hong Kong. More than a hundred people, including several prominent activists, have been arrested since the imposition of the law. The resulting political atmosphere, along with the crackdown on civil society, sparked a wave of mass emigration from the city. By mid-2020, the Hong Kong government had declared the restoration of peace and stability with the imposition of the national security law.
The approval ratings of the government and the police plunged to their lowest points since the 1997 handover. The Central People’s Government alleged that foreign powers were instigating the conflict, although the protests have been largely described as “leaderless”. The United States passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on 27 November 2019 in response to the movement. The tactics and methods used in Hong Kong inspired other protests that followed worldwide.
Timeline
Early large-scale demonstrations
After several minor protests in March and April 2019, the anti-extradition issue attracted more attention when pro-democratic lawmakers in the Legislative Council launched a filibuster campaign against the bill. In response, the Secretary of Security John Lee announced that the government would resume second reading of the bill in full council on 12 June 2019, bypassing the Bills Committee. With the possibility of a second reading of the bill, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) launched their third protest march on 9 June. While police estimated attendance at the march on Hong Kong Island at 270,000, the organizers claimed that 1.03 million people had attended the rally, a number unprecedently high for the city. Carrie Lam insisted second reading and debate over the bill be resumed on 12 June. Protesters successfully stopped the LegCo from resuming second reading of the bill by surrounding the LegCo Complex. Police Commissioner Stephen Lo declared the clashes a “riot”; police were subsequently criticized for using excessive force, such as firing tear gas at protesters at an approved rally. Following the clashes, protesters began calling for an independent inquiry into police brutality; they also urged the government to retract the “riot” characterization.
On 15 June, Carrie Lam announced the bill’s suspension but did not fully withdraw it. The same day, Marco Leung Ling-Kit, a 35-year-old man, fell to his death after slipping on scaffolding and plunging 17 meters to his death whilst protesting Lam’s decision and claims of police brutality. Ruled by an inquest jury as “death by misadventure”, this accident formed a rallying point for the movement and his anti-extradition slogans later became the foundations for the “five demands” of the protests, and his yellow raincoat became one of the symbols of the protests. A protest on the following day had almost 2 million people participating according to an CHRF estimate, while the police estimated that there were 338,000 demonstrators at its peak. While Lam offered a personal apology on 18 June, she dismissed calls for her resignation.
Storming of the Legislative Council and escalation
The CHRF claimed a record turnout of 550,000 for their annual march on 1 July 2019, while police estimated around 190,000 at the peak; an independent polling organization estimated attendance at 260,000. The protest was largely peaceful. At night, partly angered by several more suicides since 15 June 2019, some radical protesters stormed into the Legislative Council; police took little action to stop them.
After 1 July 2019, protests spread to different neighborhoods in Hong Kong. CHRF held another anti-extradition protest on 21 July on Hong Kong Island. Instead of dispersing, protesters headed for the Liaison Office in Sai Ying Pun, where they defaced the Chinese national emblem. While a standoff between the protesters and the police occurred on Hong Kong Island, groups of white-clad individuals, suspected to be triad members appeared and indiscriminately attacked people inside Yuen Long station. Police were absent during the attacks, and the local police stations were shuttered, leading to suspicion that the attack was coordinated with police. The attack was often seen as the turning point for the movement, as it crippled people’s confidence in the police and turned a lot of citizens who were politically neutral or apathetic against the police.
A call for a general strike on 5 August was answered by about 350,000 people according to the Confederation of Trade Unions; over 200 flights had to be cancelled. Various incidents involving alleged police brutality on 11 August prompted protesters to stage a three-day sit-in at Hong Kong International Airport from 12 to 14 August, forcing the Airport Authority to cancel numerous flights. On 23 August, an estimated 210,000 people participated in the “Hong Kong Way” campaign to draw attention to the movement’s five demands. The chain extended across the top of Lion Rock.
Ignoring a police ban, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong Island on 31 August following the arrests of high-profile pro-democracy activists and lawmakers the previous day. At night, the Special Tactical Squad (officially known as the Special Tactical Contingent) stormed Prince Edward station, where they beat and pepper-sprayed the commuters inside. On 4 September, Carrie Lam announced the formal withdrawal of the extradition bill once Legco reconvened in October and the introduction of additional measures to calm the situation. However, protests continued to push for the realization of all five demands.
Intensification and sieges of the universities
On 1 October 2019, mass protests and violent conflict occurred between the protesters and police in various districts of Hong Kong during the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This resulted in the first use of live rounds by police. An 18-year-old protester named Tsang Chi-kin, was shot in the chest by police in Tsuen Wan after charging towards a riot policeman. He was later charged with rioting and assaulting officers but did not show up in court in December 2020. After 2 years in hiding, he was finally arrested in Sai Kung in July 2022 trying to flee to Taiwan. Tsang appeared in court on April 18, 2023 and will plead guilty to contempt of court, rioting and assaulting a police officer. Carrie Lam invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to impose a law to ban wearing face masks in public gatherings, attempting to curb the ongoing protests on 4 October. The law’s enactment was followed by continued demonstrations in various districts of Hong Kong, blocking major thoroughfares, vandalizing shops considered to be pro-Beijing and paralyzing the MTR system. Protests and citywide flash rallies persisted throughout the month.
Protesters clashed with the police late at night on 3 November 2019. Alex Chow Tsz-lok, a 22-year-old student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), was later found unconscious on the second floor of the estate’s car park. He died on 8 November following two unsuccessful brain surgeries. After his death, protesters engaged in flash rallies against the police and attended vigils in various districts of Hong Kong. They blamed the police for his death, though the police denied any involvement. In response to Chow’s death, protesters planned a city-wide strike starting on 11 November by disrupting transport in the morning in various districts of Hong Kong. That morning, a policeman fired live rounds in Sai Wan Ho, in response to an unarmed 21 year-old attempting to snatch his gun. On 14 November, an elderly man named Luo Changqing died from a head injury which he had sustained the previous day during a confrontation between two groups of anti-government protesters and residents in Sheung Shui.
For the first time, during a standoff on 11 November, police shot numerous rounds of tear gas, sponge grenades and rubber bullets into the campuses of universities, while protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs in response. Student protesters from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) confronted the police for two consecutive days. After the conflict, protesters briefly occupied several universities. A major conflict between protesters and police took place in Hung Hom on 17 November after protesters took control of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and blockaded the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. Thus began the siege of PolyU by police which ended with them storming onto the campus and arresting several protesters and volunteer medics in the early morning of 18 November. On March 11, 2023, 20 people were jailed for up to 64 months over riot near besieged PolyU campus in 2019.
Electoral landslide and COVID-19
The 24 November 2019 District Council election, considered a referendum on the government and the protests, attracted a record high voter turnout. The results saw the pro-democracy camp win by a landslide, with the pro-Beijing camp suffering their greatest electoral defeat in Hong Kong’s history. The unprecedented electoral success of the pro-democracy voters, the mass arrests during the PolyU siege, and faster response by police contributed to a decrease in the intensity and frequency of the protests in December 2019 and January 2020. Despite this, the CHRF organized two marches to maintain pressure on the government on 8 December 2019 and 1 January 2020.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China caused the number of large-scale rallies to dwindle further because of fears that they might facilitate the spread of the virus. Despite this, the pro-democratic movement’s tactics were repurposed to pressure the government to take stronger actions to safeguard public health in the face of the pandemic’s outbreak in Hong Kong. As the COVID-19 crisis escalated in February and March 2020, the scale of the protests dwindled further. Police have used COVID-19 laws banning groups of more than four, for example, to disperse protesters. On 18 April, police arrested 15 pro-democracy activists including Jimmy Lai, Martin Lee and Margaret Ng for their activities in 2019, drawing international condemnation.
Implementation of the national security law
On 21 May 2020, state media announced that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) would begin drafting a new law that covers “secession, foreign interference, terrorism and subversion against the central government”, to be added into the Annex III of the Hong Kong Basic Law. This meant that the law would come into effect through promulgation, bypassing local legislation. Despite international pressure, the NPCSC passed the national security law unanimously on 30 June, without informing the public and the local officials of the content of the law. The law created a chilling effect in the city. Demosistō, which had been involved in lobbying for other nations’ support, and several pro-independence groups announced that they had decided to disband and cease all operations, fearing that they would be the targets of the new law. Thousands of protesters showed up on 1 July to protest against the newly implemented law. On that day, the police arrested at least ten people for “breaching national security” for displaying protest art.
Following the implementation of the national security law, the international community reassessed their policies towards China. Major countries in the West (Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, Germany and New Zealand) suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong over the introduction of the national security law. The US Congress passed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and president Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to revoke the city’s special trade status after Mike Pompeo informed the Congress that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China and so should be considered the same country in trade and other such matters. On 7 August, the US announced that they would impose sanctions on eleven Hong Kong and Chinese top officials, including Carrie Lam, for undermining Hong Kong’s freedom and autonomy. British Home Office announced that starting from early 2021, current and former holders of the BN(O) passport in Hong Kong can resettle in the UK along with their dependents for five years before they become eligible to apply for permanent citizenship.
Subsequent clampdown and exodus
Civic Party promoting the primaries as the democrats aspired to secure a majority in LegCo. Four candidates from the party were disqualified by the government.
Invigorated by its success in the November 2019 District Council election, the pro-democratic bloc was eyeing to win over half of the 70 seats in the Legislative Council in the election set to be held on 6 September. Unfazed by the national security law, more than 600,000 people cast their votes in the bloc’s historic first primaries in mid July 2020. The Hong Kong government then disqualified twelve candidates on 30 July, nearly all of whom were winners from the pro-democratic primaries. The decision drew international condemnation for obstructing the election and the democratic process. On the following day, Carrie Lam, going against the public opinion, invoked emergency powers to delay the election, citing the pandemic as the reason. While the NPCSC allowed the four disqualified incumbent lawmakers to transition to the extended term in July, they decided to remove them from office in November 2020, resulting in the mass resignation of all of opposition lawmakers.
The police continued to use the law to target local activists and critics of Beijing, including business tycoon Jimmy Lai. In January 2021, the police arrested more than 50 individuals, all of whom were candidates in the primaries for “subverting state power”. This meant that most of the active and prominent politicians in the opposite camp in Hong Kong have been arrested by the authorities using the national security law. Arrest warrants were issued to exiled activists for breaching the national security law, including former lawmakers Nathan Law, Baggio Leung and Ted Hui. Twelve Hong Kong activists who were released on bail were captured by China’s Coast Guard Bureau while fleeing to Taiwan on a speedboat on 23 August. Detained in Yantian, Shenzhen, they were subsequently charged with crossing the Chinese border illegally and were prevented from choosing their lawyers and meeting their families.
As protest activities dwindled, the government continued to tighten its control in Hong Kong, censoring school textbooks and removing any mention of the Tiananmen massacre, arresting organizers of vigils for the victims of the massacre, removing public examination questions which the authorities deemed politically inappropriate, deregistering “yellow-ribbon” teachers, and declaring that separation of powers never existed in Hong Kong despite previous comments by the city’s top judges recognizing its importance in Hong Kong. It also attempted to reshape the narrative of the Yuen Long attack by claiming that the attack had not been indiscriminate, changing the officially reported police response time, and arresting Lam Cheuk-ting, a pro-democracy lawmaker who was hurt in the attack, for “rioting”.
Civil society faced a crackdown by authorities, which triggered a massive exodus from Hong Kong. Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers were among the first to leave the territory; the first wave of emigres also included young professionals, as well as families whose parents wanted to have their children be schooled with emphasis on independent critical thinking. More than 89,000 Hongkongers left the city in a year after the national security law was imposed, and the city witnessed a record 1.2% drop in population. Schools were shrinking as parents feared “brainwashing” “patriotic” education be implemented, and tens of thousands applied for British National (Overseas) visas after the UK government unveiled a new immigration path for passport holders.