page_title: 2019–20 Hong Kong protests
section_title: Early demonstrations
hierarchical_section_title: 2019–20 Hong Kong protests / History / Early demonstrations
caption_attribution_description: Harcourt Road tear smoke
context_page_description: The ongoing 2019–20 Hong Kong protests were triggered by the introduction of the Fugitive Offenders amendment bill by the Hong Kong government. The now aborted bill would have allowed extradition to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong did not have extradition agreements, including mainland China and Taiwan. This led to concerns that Hong Kong residents and visitors would be exposed to the legal system of mainland China, thereby undermining Hong Kong's autonomy and infringing civil liberties. It set off a chain of protest actions that began with a sit-in at the government headquarters on 15 March 2019, a demonstration attended by hundreds of thousands on 9 June 2019, followed by a gathering outside the Legislative Council Complex to stall the bill's second reading on 12 June which escalated into violence that caught the world's attention.
  On 16 June, just one day after the Hong Kong government suspended the bill, an even bigger protest took place to push for its complete withdrawal and in reaction to the perceived excessive use of force by the police on 12 June.
context_section_description: A sit-in by the pro-democracy group Demosistō held at the Central Government Complex on 15 March 2019 was the first protest against the extradition bill. The Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), a platform for 50 pro-democracy groups, launched a protest march against the bill on 31 March and another on 28 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, whose role would have been to scrutinise it.
  With the possibility of a second reading of the bill, the CHRF launched their third protest march on 9 June. While police estimated attendance at the march on Hong Kong Island at 270,000, the organisers claimed that 1.03 million people had attended the rally. 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. Riot police dispersed protesters using controversial methods such as kettling, firing tear gas, bean bag rounds and rubber bullets, and allegedly assaulted journalists in the process. Police Commissioner Stephen Lo declared the clashes a "riot". Police were subsequently criticised for using excessive force, such as firing tear gas at a crowd peacefully protesting near CITIC Tower, and for the lack of identification numbers on police officers' uniforms. Following the clashes, protesters began calling for an independent inquiry into police brutality; they also urged the government to retract the "riot" characterisation.
  On 15 June, Carrie Lam announced the bill's suspension but did not fully withdraw it. A 35-year-old man committed suicide in protest of Lam's decision. CHRF claimed that 2 million people had participated in the 16 June protest, while the police estimated that there were 338,000 demonstrators at its peak.
caption: Police used tear gas to disperse protesters gathering outside the Legislative Council Complex on 12 June 2019.
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