Apple Daily was a Chinese-language newspaper published in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021, with a digital-only English edition launched in May, 2020. Founded by Jimmy Lai and part of Next Media, Apple Daily was known for its sensational headlines, paparazzi photographs, and pro-democracy, anti-CCP editorial position. A sister publication of the same name was published in Taiwan under a joint venture between Next Digital and other Taiwanese companies.
Although Hong Kong law provides freedom of speech and press, and freedom of expression is protected by the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, the Hong Kong national security law gives the government the power to "take down any electronic messages published" that the government considers endangering national security. The government has blocked several anti-government, doxxing or politically sensitive websites after the commencement of the law, leading to increased concerns of Internet censorship.
Civil unrest occurred in Mong Kok, Hong Kong from the night of 8 February 2016 until the following morning. This incident occurred following the government's crackdown on unlicensed street hawkers during the Chinese New Year holidays. Eventually, violent clashes broke out between police and protesters, resulting in injuries on both sides.
The 2019 Yuen Long attack, also known as the 721 incident, refers to a mob attack that occurred in Yuen Long, a town in the New Territories of Hong Kong, on the evening of 21 July 2019. It took place in the context of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. A mob dressed in white stormed the MTR's Yuen Long station and attacked protesters returning from a demonstration in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island as well as bystanders.
The 2019 Prince Edward station attack, also known as the 31 August MTR station incident, was an incident in which Hong Kong police indiscriminately attacked passengers while arresting protesters who were returning home via Prince Edward station, on the night of 31 August 2019, after a protest was held that same day. The event was described as the police version of the 2019 Yuen Long attack, and the police have been criticised as acting like terrorists. Rumours have been circulated that several protesters were beaten to death at the station, but the police have rejected allegations. However, for over a year on the last day of each month, pro-democracy supporters continued to leave white flowers and bowed as a sign of mourning, until they were stopped by more stringent enforcement of the national security law by police.
Fergus Leung Fong-wai is a Hong Kong politician formerly serving as a member of the Central and Western District Council, representing Kwun Lung. Leung ran as an independent Localist camp candidate in the 2019 District Council elections and won his seat with 50.69% of the vote.
The month of July 2020 in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests began with a turning point in the evolution of the protests, brought about by the Hong Kong national security law. The law, which had been passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China on 30 June and come into effect on the same day, was widely seen as having the purpose of curbing opposition, in a broad sense, against the Chinese Communist Party in the city. The law had direct relevance to the protests, as it prescribes harsh penalties for the tactics that protesters had commonly used. Nevertheless, sizeable protests erupted throughout the city on occasion of the 1 July protests the next day, resulting in about 370 arrests, including at least ten on charges under the new law. The Hong Kong government, faced with the task of implementing a law that had been drafted and promulgated without substantial involvement by its own officials, was seen widely, including in the academic and media sectors, as being unable to draw a clear demarcation line between which acts would constitute punishable offences under the law, and which would not. The vagueness of the law, while refused by the city's police chief, was seen by pro-democrats and observers as a deliberate device to amplify its deterrence effect.
Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam is a Hong Kong social activist and former reporter of the now defunct news outlet Stand News, who rose to prominence for her frontline reporting in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. In June 2020, she announced her candidature in the 2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries, in which she obtained a nomination ticket in the general election that was later postponed. For her participation, she was arrested in January 2021 along with over 50 other pro-democrats on national security charges and was remanded in custody. In December 2021, she received a sentence of six months in relation to her role in a banned protest during the 31st anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in June 2020.
The month of August 2020 in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests saw only sparse and relatively small protests, mainly due to the city going through a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and an outdoor gathering ban on groups of more than two people. As the impact of the Hong Kong National Security Law on the city became increasingly evident, and additionally in response to acts by representatives of the local and mainland governments throughout the protests, Western democracies continued to voice sharp criticism and implemented sanctions against China, with the United States imposing sanctions on 11 Hong Kong officials on 7 August. These developments supported the opinion expressed by former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind in late June that the protests had morphed from a mostly local dispute into an international one.
The offices of Apple Daily, once the largest anti-China newspaper in Hong Kong, and its parent company, Next Digital, were raided and executives arrested by the Hong Kong Police Force on 10 August 2020 and again on 17 June 2021. Some of the arrested and three companies of Next Digital were charged under the Hong Kong national security law. The 26-year-old newspaper was forced to close in June 2021 following the raids and freezing of its capital.
On 6 September, the biggest protests in the course of the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests since 1 July occurred in the city. The fresh protests were in a large part due to the day having been the scheduled election day for the Legislative Council; on 31 July, the Hong Kong government had the elections postponed by a year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, a justification that was widely doubted. The unauthorized protests resulted in nearly 300 arrests, one of them on suspected violation of the national security law, and brought the total number of arrests during the entire protests since June 2019 to above 10,000.
Hong Kong 12, or 12 Hongkongers, are the twelve Hong Kong protesters, previously arrested by the Hong Kong police, detained by the Chinese authorities in 2020 on sea after a failed attempt to flee to Taiwan.
A suicide attack took place at approximately 22:10 on 1 July 2021, in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. 50-year-old Leung Kin-fai approached a Police Tactical Unit police officer from behind and stabbed him, injuring the officer's scapula and piercing his lung, before Leung committed suicide by stabbing his own heart. Leung was immediately subdued by surrounding police, arrested and sent to hospital. He died at 23:20.
Leung Kin-fai, was a Hong Kong merchandiser known for stabbing a 29 year old police officer in Causeway Bay and committing suicide immediately afterwards. The attack took place on a day when three sensitive dates converged – the anniversary of the territory's handover from British to Chinese rule, the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, one year after the imposition of the Hong Kong national security law. The victim, Wai-ming survived the stabbing after going through 7 hours of emergency surgery. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Wai-ming said that he could not forgive "a man who thought he could evade responsibility by committing suicide”, as that sent a wrong message to society, and that his message to Leung was that he believed violence was wrong and is never the solution.
A dramatic manifestation of the far reach of the Hong Kong national security law was the mass arrest of 54 pro-democracy activists on 6 January. The arrested stood accused of subverting state power, a crime under the national security law, for their participation as candidates or in other capacities, in the 2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries, which was part of a plan to increase pressure in parliament for democratic reform. Most of them were released on bail the following day. For the first time, the National Security Department of the police cited the national security law to block the website of HKChronicles. There were also several convictions in relation to the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests.
On 22 February 2021, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, proposed that Hong Kong's governance had to be in the hands of "patriots". Observers considered it possible that the definition of "patriot" would require candidates for public office to embrace the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, as also suggested by Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang; and that this signified a departure from the position that had prevailed since a speech by China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in 1984.
On 29 December 2021, Stand News, one of the few remaining pro-democracy media outlets in Hong Kong following the passage of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020, was raided by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force. Media executives and journalists were arrested on the charge of "conspiring to publish seditious publications" on a large scale. As a result of the raid, Stand News ceased operations, the organisation's website and social media became inactive, and all its employees were dismissed. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with leaders in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States, condemned the raid.
Chung Pui-kuen is a Hong Kong journalist. Former chief editor of Stand News, a defunct Hong Kong online media outlet, Chung was convicted of sedition in 2024, the first since the city was handed over to China in 1997.
