History of Hong Kong protests:
riots, rallies and brollies

Hong Kong has never experienced a fully democratic government but that has not stopped people trying to make themselves heard.

AP Photo/Vincent Yu

By Marcelo Duhalde AND Han Huang

July 4, 2019

Public protests in Hong Kong date back to British colonial rule and have evolved from the bloody riots of the 1960s into the recent protests of up to two million people marching.

This year, in stark contrast to the usually peaceful demonstrations held to coincide with the July 1 anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, a separate group of activists stormed the Legislative Council parliament building. There they trashed the chambers in protest over an extradition bill which they feared would make people in Hong Kong subject to China’s legal system.

Prior to this, Hong Kong protests captured the world’s imagination with viral videos of students blockading roads in Admiralty district while doing their homework during the pro-democracy ‘umbrella movement’ in 2014, and, more recently, a video of demonstrators parting like the Red Sea to let an ambulance pass.

July 1 handover anniversary

Large-scale protests have been held on July 1 every year since 2003. The anniversary of the handover has become an annual opportunity to vent disaffection with the government and call for increased democracy and other political causes. This year’s was the largest to date and involved atypical scenes of chaos and vandalism.

The Public Order Ordinance, which regulates public meetings and processions, was first enacted in 1967 to crack down on the leftist riots against British colonial rule. It outlawed any gatherings of three or more people without police permission.

In 1995 it became much more liberal following the enactment of the Bill of Rights Ordinance, based on the United Nations' International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Since 1997, public gatherings of more than 50 people or processions with more than 30 protesters have to tell police seven days in advance and receive a "notice of no objection".

Years of defiance

Click on the dots to explore our 53 year timeline of protests that helped define Hong Kong.

Click on the arrows to explore our 53 year timeline of protests that helped define Hong Kong.

2019

Anti-extradition bill protests

The catalyst for the current protests was the Hong Kong government’s decision to amend the current Fugitive Offenders Ordinance on the pretext of the ongoing Chan Tong-kai case. Chan is accused of murdering his girlfriend in Taipei but cannot be extradited to stand trial in Taiwan because the law does not allow Hong Kong to transfer fugitives to mainland China and Taiwan.

Protesters storm the Legislative Council building while police watch on.

Protesters storm the Legislative Council building while police watch on.

On June 16 up to two million citizens took to the streets to protest against the amendment bill, which they believe would destroy the firewall between Hong Kong and the mainland, where fair trials are not guaranteed. Opponents range from pan-democrats, lawyers and businessmen to major foreign countries such as the United States and Britain. Critics argue that Hongkongers, or visitors in the city, could be victimised for political reasons, or be prosecuted for crimes committed inadvertently.

In response to the massive demonstrations on June 9 and 16, the Hong Kong government suspended the extradition bill with no time frame for its reintroduction but maintains the legislation's intention to plug the legal loopholes is still valid. (June 15)

Occupy Central

The large-scale sit-ins in Hong Kong’s business districts, Admiralty and Mong Kok, lasted 79 days from September 28 to December 15, 2014. The Umbrella Movement emerged out of opposition to Beijing’s stringent framework for implemental universal suffrage in Hong Kong. The election of the city’s leader would consist of candidates pre-vetted by a 1,200-member panel that would be mostly Beijing supporters.

The idea to occupy was first floated in 2013 by law professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who later started the civil disobedience movement Occupy Central with Love and Peace with pastor Reverend Chu Yiu-ming and sociology scholar Chan Kin-man. They ran a series of ‘deliberation days’ inviting members of the public to discuss ways of reform.

But as Beijing decreed its rigid framework on August 31, 2014, hopes were dashed and protesters gathered outside the government headquarters. The trio of Tai, Chu and Chan soon found matters were running out of their control. Student leaders did not follow their plan of a sit-in, but instead stormed into the forecourt of the government headquarters and got arrested.

Protesters raise their umbrellas as they take over Admiralty

Protesters calling for the students’ release flocked to Admiralty and eventually blocked a major road. The police use of tear gas and pepper spray on protesters shocked the city. Protesters used umbrellas to protect themselves and that was how the movement found its name.

During the occupation that lasted for more than two months, the government held a televised talk with student leaders but bore no fruit. The movement was undermined by a lack of unity between the trio, politicians and student leaders. After months of traffic disruption, the movement began to lose wider public sympathy.

In the end the campaign ran out of steam, with the trio surrendering themselves to police and student leaders leaving the protest zone quietly. None of the demands for universal suffrage were met.

Dock workers strike

About 500 dock workers at Hong Kong’s Kwai Tsing Container Terminal demanded a 15 per cent pay rise and improvements to their working conditions. The port operator is owned by Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing. Workers and supporters protested outside the terminal, paralysing the container port and causing delays in the exchange of maritime cargo. They later also gathered outside Li’s office building in Central.

The strike captured media attention and popular sympathy as well as the support of other groups like the student union and pro-democracy parties, and the International Labour Organisation.

Organisers said 4,000 protesters marched from Victoria Park to Central on April 7. Police put the figure at 2,800.

Striking dock workers at a general meeting in Wan Chai.

Lasting 40 days, this was the longest running industrial action in Hong Kong after the second world war. The strike was called off when workers accepted an offer of a 9.8 per cent pay rise.

Anti-national education movement

The Hong Kong government tried to impose a course called “Moral and National Education” on all schools in the city. Fears were expressed that the course represented political propaganda that exalted the benefits of Chinese communism and criticised democracy, and sought to brainwash Hong Kong’s youth.

Led by the 15-year-old Joshua Wong Chi-fung, a group of secondary school students founded the Scholarism movement to mobilise students against the proposal. They were soon joined by parents’ and teachers’ groups.

Students during a class boycott at the Chinese University of Hong Kong

At the end of July some 90,000 people protested in the streets of Hong Kong to support the students. The march resulted in an occupation of the forecourt of the government headquarters, now known as the ‘Civic Square’, and lasted several months. In August, three student leaders started hunger strikes.

Seeing the unpopularity of the new proposal and fearing the adverse reaction to images of teenagers on hunger strike, the government first announced that the new curriculum would not be mandatory, and soon after, a temporary withdrawal of the proposal. Scholarism joined the Occupy protests in 2014, went defunct in 2016, but its core members, including Wong, later founded political party Demosisto.

The Anti-Express Rail Link Movement

The controversy began in 2008 when the government unveiled a formal proposal for the 26km express rail link with mainland China terminating in West Kowloon. The initiative required the demolition and relocation of the farm village Tsoi Yuen Tsuen. Protestors cited social dislocation, cost, noise pollution, customs and border control complications, and existing rail links as reasons for their opposition.

When the Legislative Council started to discuss the government’s funding request for the project, protesters performed a “prostrating walk” around the Legco building, in which participants knelt and touched the ground with their heads every 26 steps to symbolise the length of the rail link.

Villagers perform a symbolic walk against the high-speed rail link.

The climax came when lawmakers were set to approve funding on January 26, 2010. Thousands of protesters besieged the Legco block for about five hours, with some trying to storm inside while others occupied roads nearby.

Funding was passed due to the pro-establishment bloc’s majority in Legco. After violent confrontations the activists were dispersed by the police.

Wedding Card Street protests

Another announcement of redevelopment, this time on Lee Tung Street in Wan Chai. The street, also known as “Wedding Card Street”, was famed as a centre for print wedding card invitations. Activists were angry that a traditional neighbourhood was to be demolished to make way for an upmarket residential redevelopment. They sought to preserve the character of the area and its cultural heritage, appealing to the authorities by presenting their own urban planning proposals. The designs were rejected. Activists then broke into the Town Planning Board sessions and tried to stop the works at the demolition site. A resident affected by the project staged a hunger strike.

The initiative was not successful because of a disparity of opinions about the project and because some owners had already accepted compensation from the Urban Renewal Authority. But the campaign did pressurise the redevelopment agency to consider preservation of local character in future projects.

Tempers fray as a resident stages a hunger strike to protest the demolition of Lee Tung Street.

Save Queens' Pier

In September 2006, the government announced plans to demolish Queen's Pier to make way for land reclamation and the construction of the Central-Wan Chai Bypass. Many Hongkongers were furious, claiming the pier and the Star Ferry represented part of the city’s collective memory and cultural heritage.

In July 2007, protesters began to occupy the pier and staged a hunger strike, demanding the landmark be declared a historic monument. Three days later the Lands Department issued a statement saying the protesters were unlawfully occupying government land. Activists were requested to evacuate the premises by midnight of August 1. Protesters were removed from the pier by police.

Activists stage a hunger strike to protest plans to demolish Queen’s Pier.

The Pier was completely demolished in March 2008. The protest is seen as the “awakening” of Hongkongers’ sense of local identity and it sparked a series of heritage conservation campaigns in the community.

Anti-Article 23

Hong Kong’s economy took a battering in the years following the handover.

First the Hang Seng Index collapsed during the Asian financial crisis of 1998, followed by the dotcom bubble bursting after which the global economy was struck a further blow when the US suffered the September 11 terror attacks.

Just when it seemed like Hong Kong’s economy could not get any worse, the 2003 Sars epidemic struck, killing 299 people and devastating confidence in the city. House prices plummeted. Discontent was widespread.

When then security secretary Regina Ip proposed a national security legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, which aimed to “prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government” Hongkongers responded en masse, charging that the bill was a direct attack on the city’s core values, such as freedom of speech and of association.

Half a million citizens directed their ire at then chief executive Tung Chee-hwa by marching from Victoria Park to the government offices in the largest protest seen in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover.

Protesters gather outside the Legislative Council.

The Article 23 bill was eventually withdrawn and Regina Ip resigned. Tung initially stayed on but remained unpopular. He tendered his resignation in 2005, citing leg pains, two years before the end of his term.

Since then, protests have been called every July 1 to coincide with the anniversary of the handover and serve as an opportunity for people to express discontent and call on the government to implement universal suffrage, protect the freedom of speech and address a variety of other social political concerns.

Tiananmen solidarity protests

This event resulted in two gatherings:

May 21

In China, massive crowds had gathered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square demanding democracy and the resignation of Li Peng, the Chinese Premier. When the authorities imposed martial law in Beijing, 600,000 people in Hong Kong marched on the streets in solidarity. The Hong Kong protests continued over the following days, bringing together disparate elements including leaders from the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions, journalists from the leftist press, and even staff from Xinhua News Agency, the then de facto Chinese embassy in Hong Kong. More than 300,000 turned up for the star-studded Concert for Democracy in China at the Happy Valley Racecourse on May 27.

May 28

A crowd of 1.5 million people, then the largest in Hong Kong’s history, gathered to protest when the forceful military occupation of Tiananmen Square became imminent.

Crowds take to the streets in support of China’s pro-democracy movement.

The events of Tiananmen shattered Hongkongers’ confidence in the future of their city, which would return to Chinese rule under a deal signed just four years before between China and Britain. Stock markets plunged. Hongkongers became apprehensive about maintaining the city’s freedoms, its own identity, and pluralism, and whether the “one country, two systems” principle promised by Beijing would really work. Tens of thousands emigrated in the years after 1989.

Today, people continue to gather for a vigil to remember the movement every year on June 4 in Victoria Park, the only place in China where public commemoration of the incident is allowed. Over time the commemoration has become part of Hongkongers’ collective memory and identity.

"Golden Jubilee" incident

Thousands marched in outrage over the expulsion of suspected “leftist” pupils at the Precious Blood Golden Jubilee Secondary School, a Catholic girls’ school. Students and teachers staged a weeks-long sit-in at the Hong Kong Cathedral Compound to demand the reinstatement of four expelled pupils and the dismissal of their headmistress, who was accused of financial mishandling. A 20-year-old Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor marched with her fellow Hong Kong University students to give a petition to the governor in the then-British colony.

A young Carrie Lam attending a march on Government House.

The colonial government eventually intervened and shut the school down.

Teachers’ strike

The recently founded Hong Kong Professional Teachers Union took strike action against the colonial government’s proposed cut to teacher salaries by 15 per cent. Eighty per cent of primary school teachers took part.

The government was forced to withdraw the proposed salary cut. The PTU repeatedly challenged the government throughout 1972 forcing it to make several more concessions.

Leftist riots

Regarded as a spillover of the Cultural Revolution on the mainland, what originated as a minor labour dispute in a plastic flower factory in Kowloon spiralled into large scale demonstrations to become the most violent events in Hong Kong since the second world war. Also fermented by social discontent, thousands of pro-Maoist demonstrators took to the streets in protest against the colonial British authorities, adopting shock tactics including strikes, assassinations and the planting of decoy as well as real bombs. When the rioting subsided, 51 people were dead and 832 injured, with nearly 5,000 arrested.

Police fire tear gas to disperse rioters.

The Public Order Ordinance of 1967 remains in force, which means people must obtain permission from the police for any demonstration, while the police can prohibit demonstrations that they think threaten public order and arrest citizens holding “unlawful assemblies”.

On the other hand, the next governor, Murray MacLehose, initiated a raft of measures to address social discontent, including a 10-year public housing programme, measures to improve workers’ conditions, and provision of free education.

Star Ferry riots

Before the Cross-Harbour Tunnel was built the Star Ferry was the essential transport link between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. When the Star Ferry company announced a fare increase of five cents, which was approved by the government, the public was incensed. A 27-year-old translator, So Sau-chung started a hunger strike. When So was arrested protesters gathered to demand his release. Four days of rioting in Mong Kok and surrounding neighbourhoods followed, leaving one person dead, dozens injured, and over 1,800 arrested.

Police questioning demonstrators at the Star Ferry pier.

The colonial government appointed a commission of inquiry in May 1966 to look into the causes of the disturbances. The commission concluded that there was a gap between the government and the people, especially in economic and social fields.

Failure or success

The success or failure of a protest is hard to measure since some events form part of a larger movement that may affect change further down the line. The idea in the following graph however, is to visualise how many of these protests achieved their goals in the immediate aftermath.

Perception of freedom

The graph below shows the Public Opinion Programme survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong from 1997 to 2019. In the phone survey, respondents are asked to evaluate the extent of the freedom of procession and demonstration in Hong Kong: 10 indicates absolute freedom, 0 indicates absolute lack of freedom. The markers indicate ratings when significant events/protests took place.

Is this Occupy again?

In the anti-extradition bill campaign, protesters have developed a guerrilla-style movement in addition to the traditional marches. Without clear leadership, activists discussed strategy on popular online forum LIHKG and co-ordinated through the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Instead of staging mass sit-ins they now moved quickly from one place to another. On June 21 protesters “picnicked” outside the government headquarters in the morning, moved on to block entrances to other government department buildings in the afternoon, and besieged the police headquarters in the evening. This contrasts with the mass sit-ins of the Umbrella Movement which ended with a robust backlash when the public tired of the constant inconvenience.

Click on different parts of the 2019 protester’s body to see how the protester’s gear differs from 2014’s Occupy activist

Click on the year to see how the protester’s gear differs from 2014’s Occupy activist

How big is big?

For the purposes of this graphic we assume five people can comfortably squeeze into one square metre. Using this measurement we estimate the number of football pitches (in this case a 100m long by 64m wide football pitch) various protests would need to fit all the protesters.

Protest Leaders

Hong Kong’s protests have been led by a diverse range of people, from church leaders to students, to lawyers and businessmen. Explore the gallery below to learn a little more about some of these characters.

Joshua Wong
Birth:1996

A key figure in the 2011 Anti-National Education protest and 2014 Umbrella Movement, Wong was seen by many as the poster boy for the Hong Kong student movement. Wong is currently secretary of the liberal political party Demosisto, founded in 2016. Recently imprisoned for failing to comply with a court order for clearance of the Mong Kok protest.

Alex Chow Yongkang
Birth:1990

Chow was an influential organiser and speaker in the early stages of Occupy Central and was convicted for incitement of unlawful assembly in 2016. After initially being sentenced to three weeks' imprisonment, Chow’s term was later increased to seven months on appeal to the High Court by the government. Chow began a master's degree at the London School of Economics in 2016.

Chu Hoi-dick
Birth:1977

Journalist and activist-turned-lawmaker, Chu inspired the demonstrations against the demolition of the Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier and Queen’s Pier in 2006 and 2007. He is also the key person behind the anti-express rail link movement.

Benny Tai Yiu-Ting
Birth:1964

The associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong initiated the Occupy Central with Love and Peace campaign in January 2013, demanding universal suffrage by "international standards" for the 2017 Chief Executive election and 2020 Legislative Council Elections. In April 2019, Tai was found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and inciting others to cause public nuisance and was sent to jail for 16 months.

Chan Kin-man
Birth:1959

An associate professor of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Chan was one of the founders of the Occupy Central movement demanding universal suffrage in Hong Kong. Before that, he studied social movements and worked closely with non-government organisations on the mainland. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison for his participation in the 2014 movement.

Lee Cheuk-yan
Birth:1957

A veteran unionist, former lawmaker and general secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions, Lee collected donations in Hong Kong for the student-led Tiananmen Square protest and travelled to Beijing to hand over the funds to student protesters. Detained by authorities in Beijing, Lee was made to sign a confession letter before being allowed to return home. Lee was one of the leaders in the 2013 dock workers' strike

Leung Kwok-hung
Birth:1956

Also known as “Long Hair”, Leung is a social activist, former lawmaker, and co-founder of the League of Social Democrats, of which he was the chairman from 2012 to 2016. He has been imprisoned for short periods on several occasions for protests during Legco sessions and other incidents. Leung served as a member of the Legislative Council until July 14, 2017, when his oath that deviated from the standard script was invalidated and his seat vacated.

John Sham Kin-fun
Birth:1952

Hong Kong filmmaker John Sham Kin-fun was barred from the mainland for 15 years because of his high-profile role in mobilising more than 300,000 people to attend the Concert for Democracy in China at the Happy Valley Racecourse on May 27, a week before the Tiananmen crackdown. In 2004, Beijing allowed him to return to China and he now runs the mainland’s second-biggest chain of movie theatres.

Chu Yiu-ming
Birth:1944

Minister of the Chai Wan Baptist Church and one of the founders of Occupy Central, Chu actively took part in the Yellow Bird operation to help dissidents flee from the Chinese regime after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2019 but his sentence was suspended for two years due to his state of health and his years of contribution to society.

Cardinal Joseph Zen
Birth:1932

Zen served as bishop of Hong Kong and was made a cardinal in 2002 until he retired in 2009. He is known for speaking out in defence of human rights and religious freedom, as well as calling on the Chinese government to let the Chinese people freely discuss the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He opposed the anti-subversion law in 2003 and led the July 1 protests in 2007. Zen has received harsh criticism from the Chinese Communist Party.

Szeto Wah
1931-2011

A former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union as well as the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China. Szeto spearheaded the territory-wide teachers' strike in 1973 and played a major role in gathering public support for the Tiananmen democracy movement and Operation Yellow Bird.

Yeung Kwong
1926-2015

Yeung served as Federation of Trade Unions chairman from 1962 and president between 1980 and 1988. A local deputy to the National People's Congress, Yeung served as director of the Anti-British Struggle during the 1967 riots. Yeung was awarded the city’s top honour, the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2001 for his "outstanding contribution [and] dedicated community service".

Joshua Wong

Birth:1996

A key figure in the 2011 Anti-National Education protest and 2014 Umbrella Movement, Wong was seen by many as the poster boy for the Hong Kong student movement. Wong is currently secretary of the liberal political party Demosisto, founded in 2016. Recently imprisoned for failing to comply with a court order for clearance of the Mong Kok protest.

Alex Chow Yongkang

Birth:1990

Chow was an influential organiser and speaker in the early stages of Occupy Central and was convicted for incitement of unlawful assembly in 2016. After initially being sentenced to three weeks' imprisonment, Chow’s term was later increased to seven months on appeal to the High Court by the government. Chow began a master's degree at the London School of Economics in 2016.

Chu Hoi-dick

Birth:1977

Journalist and activist-turned-lawmaker, Chu inspired the demonstrations against the demolition of the Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier and Queen’s Pier in 2006 and 2007. He is also the key person behind the anti-express rail link movement.

Benny Tai Yiu-Ting

Birth:1964

The associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong initiated the Occupy Central with Love and Peace campaign in January 2013, demanding universal suffrage by "international standards" for the 2017 Chief Executive election and 2020 Legislative Council Elections. In April 2019, Tai was found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and inciting others to cause public nuisance and was sent to jail for 16 months.

Chan Kin-man

Birth:1959

An associate professor of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Chan was one of the founders of the Occupy Central movement demanding universal suffrage in Hong Kong. Before that, he studied social movements and worked closely with non-government organisations on the mainland. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison for his participation in the 2014 movement.

Lee Cheuk-yan

Birth:1957

A veteran unionist, former lawmaker and general secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions, Lee collected donations in Hong Kong for the student-led Tiananmen Square protest and travelled to Beijing to hand over the funds to student protesters. Detained by authorities in Beijing Lee was made to sign a confession letter before being allowed to return home. Lee was one of the leaders in the 2013 dock workers' strike.

Leung Kwok-hung

Birth:1956

Also known as “Long Hair”, Leung is a social activist, former lawmaker, and co-founder of the League of Social Democrats, of which he was the chairman from 2012 to 2016. He has been imprisoned for short periods on several occasions for protests during Legco sessions and other incidents. Leung served as a member of the Legislative Council until July 14, 2017, when his oath that deviated from the standard script was invalidated and his seat vacated.

John Sham Kin-fun

Birth:1952

Hong Kong filmmaker John Sham Kin-fun was barred from the mainland for 15 years because of his high-profile role in mobilising more than 300,000 people to attend the Concert for Democracy in China at the Happy Valley Racecourse on May 27, a week before the Tiananmen crackdown. In 2004, Beijing allowed him to return to China and he now runs the mainland’s second-biggest chain of movie theatres.

Chu Yiu-ming

Birth:1944

Minister of the Chai Wan Baptist Church and one of the founders of Occupy Central, Chu actively took part in the Yellow Bird operation to help dissidents flee from the Chinese regime after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2019 but his sentence was suspended for two years due to his state of health and his years of contribution to society.

Cardinal Joseph Zen

Birth:1932

Zen served as bishop of Hong Kong and was made a cardinal in 2002 until he retired in 2009. He is known for speaking out in defence of human rights and religious freedom, as well as calling on the Chinese government to let the Chinese people freely discuss the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He opposed the anti-subversion law in 2003 and led the July 1 protests in 2007. Zen has received harsh criticism from the Chinese Communist Party.

Szeto Wah

1931-2011

A former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union as well as the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China. Szeto spearheaded the territory-wide teachers' strike in 1973 and played a major role in gathering public support for the Tiananmen democracy movement and Operation Yellow Bird.

Yeung Kwong

1926-2015

Yeung served as Federation of Trade Unions chairman from 1962 and president between 1980 and 1988. A local deputy to the National People's Congress, Yeung served as director of the Anti-British Struggle during the 1967 riots. Yeung was awarded the city’s top honour, the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2001 for his "outstanding contribution [and] dedicated community service".

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