Hong Kong Protests

The ongoing **2019–20 Hong Kong protests**, also known as **Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement**, 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. As the protests progressed, citizens laid out five key demands, namely the withdrawal of the bill, an investigation into alleged police brutality and misconduct, the release of all the arrested, a retraction of the official characterisation of the protests as "riots", and the resignation of Carrie Lam as chief executive along with the introduction of universal suffrage in the territory. Police inaction when suspected triad members assaulted protesters and commuters in Yuen Long on 21 July and the police storming of Prince Edward station on 31 August further escalated the protests.

Lam withdrew the bill on 4 September, but refused to concede the other four demands. Exactly one month later, she invoked the emergency powers to implement an anti-mask law, to counterproductive effect. Confrontations escalated and intensified – police brutality and misconduct allegations increased, while some protesters started using petrol bombs and vandalising pro-Beijing establishments and symbols representing the government. Rifts within society widened and activists from both sides assaulted each other. The storming of the Legislative Council in July 2019, the deaths of Chow Tsz-lok and Luo Changqing, the shooting of an unarmed protester, and the sieges of two universities in November 2019 were landmark events.

After the conflict in the Chinese University and siege of the Polytechnic University, the unprecedented landslide victory of the pro-democracy camp in the District Council election in November and the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 brought a little respite. Tensions mounted again in May 2020 after Beijing's decision to promulgate a national security bill for Hong Kong before September. This was seen by many as a threat to fundamental political freedoms and civil liberties ostensibly enshrined in the Hong Kong Basic Law, and prompted the international community to re-evaluate their policies towards Hong Kong, which they deemed was no longer autonomous.

The approval ratings of the government and the police plunged to the lowest point 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 to support the protest movement. The tactics and methods used have inspired other protests in 2019.

## References:

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320\_Hong\_Kong\_protests