Anti-parallel trading protests took place in Hong Kong between 2012 and 2015, and again in 2019, against parallel traders importing goods from Hong Kong to Mainland China. Protestors claim that parallel trading has caused a shortage of household goods and an increasing inflation rate. Parallel trading and the protests have exacerbated the Hong Kong-Mainland conflict. There has also been conflict between local shop owners and citizens as the parallel trading boosts shop sales but raises the local prices of daily necessities.
Civil unrest occurred in Mong Kok, Hong Kong from the night of 8 February 2016 until the following morning. The incident escalated from the government's crackdown on unlicensed street hawkers during the Chinese New Year holidays. Eventual 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 of indigenous Yuen Long villagers dressed in white, claiming to protect Yuen Long against protestors stormed the MTR's Yuen Long station. and allegedly caused 45 injuries, which included protesters returning from a demonstration in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island, journalists and lawmakers.
The month of August 2019 in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests saw a continuation of protests throughout the city. Several of the peaceful daytime protests were held by social groups such as families, the elderly, and various professions. In many instances, peaceful protests occurs during the day, turning increasingly violent at night. In North Point and Tsuen Wan, white- or blue-shirted armed groups were attacking protesters, but unlike in the Yuen Long violence of 21 July they were beaten back in North Point. Protesters aimed at drawing international attention through methods such as extended sit-ins at the airport. In many occasions, an eye injury of a female protester who had served as frontline medical staff became a symbol of the protests. At the airport protests, a mainland journalist was violently tackled by protesters who did not reveal his identity to the protesters. Protesters later apologised for this incident, reducing tensions and satisfying some pro-establishment lawmakers. The Prince Edward station attack on 31 August proved to be a further landmark event in the protests.
The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) struggled with corruption among its ranks from the 1940s until the 1970s. It gained the nickname "Asia's Finest" after undergoing reforms in 1979. Since the 2010s, the force has faced allegations of police brutality, sexual assault, excessive use of violence, falsification of evidence, and a lack of professionalism.
The month of September in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests saw again citywide unrest. Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced on 4 September that the extradition bill, in suspension since July, would be fully withdrawn, which fulfilled one of the five demands of the protesters. Also, following an earlier promise, Lam held a discussion session with randomly selected members of the public on 26 September. These acts, however, had little to no effect on the protests, as protesters insisted that all of the five demands be met. That this latter goal would be hard, if not impossible, to achieve – due to the very limited room given to Lam's administration by mainland Chinese authorities, as transpired from comments by officials – did not discourage the protesters from continuing to take to the streets.
In October 2019, the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests saw a further escalation of violence. It became evident that the protests were unlikely to end soon, and that they posed the biggest popular challenge to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping since his ascension to CCP general secretary in 2012. To bring the situation under control, Chief Executive Carrie Lam invoked colonial-era powers to impose an anti-mask law, aimed at preventing protesters from hiding their identity. Observers considered the law, which came into force on 4 October, as a precedent for possible wider use of emergency powers at the expense of citizens' freedoms and in addition democratic rights, as they even saw the possibility of the upcoming District Council elections being cancelled based on the emergency law. The mask ban did, however, not achieve the desired effect, but rather proved a further focal point of protests. In November, the High Court ruled the mask ban to be unconstitutional, although in April 2020, an Appeal Court ruled that it was constitutional in the case of unlawful assemblies.
The month of November 2019 in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests started with protesting in malls and police getting into homes and malls to arrest protesters. The death of Chow Tsz-lok in Sheung Tak, Tseung Kwan O had led to more protests. In mid November, there were city-wide strikes which lasted for more than a week. Hong Kong Police officers fired tear gas in Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), and nearby areas. In late November, the District Council elections were held. The pro-democracy camp in conjunction with the localist groups got more than 80 per cent of the seats and gained control of 17 out of 18 District Councils.
After the rapid deterioration of the overall situation in the city in the course of the previous months of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, a degree of calming of the protests occurred in December 2019. This was due to several factors. One was an initial expectation of the protesters and their supporters that the government would finally offer concessions on the Five Demands – apart from the withdrawn extradition bill – after the resounding defeat of the pro-establishment camp in the District Council Elections on 24 November, which had dealt a blow to government rhetoric about its public support. The mass protests on 8 December were largely an expression of dissatisfaction that these concessions had not been forthcoming. Another factor seen as responsible for the decrease in the size of the protests was that the arrests during the Siege of Polytechnic University had thinned the ranks of the protesters.
This is a list of protests in January 2020 that were part of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. The protests continued to be buoyed up by the success of the pan-democrats at the November 2019 District Council Elections, but also continued to feel the effects of the mass arrests at the November 2019 siege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. With the notable exceptions of protests on New Year's Day and on 19 January, protests remained smaller-scale but took place almost every day. It appeared that police, under its new chief Chris Tang, had changed its tactics to round up violent protesters early, aiming to avoid the spiralling into evening violence that had occurred in many of the earlier protests.
Fujianese organized crime or Fujian gang refers to crime syndicates, similar to triad gangs, composed of Fujianese people. The term primarily refers to Fujianese immigrant gangs in Hong Kong, but can also refer more broadly to Fujianese community associations or to native crime syndicates in the province of Fujian.
This is a list of protests in March 2020 that were part of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. Protests activities largely centered around anniversaries of major events of the protests in 2019; there were also gatherings in shopping malls. Due to the growth of cases of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city – which would not be checked until April –, the protests were generally of considerably smaller size than before the pandemic. Police drew the dissatisfaction of demonstrators and pro-democratic politicians for their heavy-handed tactics, and for their perceived overuse of coronavirus restriction policies to dissolve rallies.
This is a timeline of events in April 2020 surrounding the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. The COVID-19 pandemic had caused a decline in the number and scale of the protests, although the Hong Kong government, police and protesters expected that with signs of the pandemic beginning to ease in Hong Kong, major protests of the kind the city had seen before the pandemic would again erupt in summer. Most protest-related activities happened online, especially on games like Animal Crossing. This resulted in a ban on the sale of Animal Crossing in China. Hong Kong police arrested 15 Democrats on the morning of 18 April, citing their alleged participation in "unlawful" gatherings that had taken place in August and October 2019 in the context of the protests. This drew international condemnation, with accusations being made that the crackdown had been carried out at the behest of the Chinese central government, and taken advantage of many Western democracies being severely hit by the pandemic, hampering their response.
The month of May in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests saw a resurgence of protests. This was partly due to the containment of the coronavirus pandemic, with a total of less than 50 newly reported cases, and a small uptick in cases at the end of the month. These were the first major protests erupting since early March. Tensions increased again as police employed heavy-handed tactics including towards minors and journalists.
The month of June 2020 was the first anniversary of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. The decision taken by the National People's Congress on national security legislation and the alleviation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong led to a new series of protests and international responses. On 30 June, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the Hong Kong national security law which came into force the same day, leading to even more people protesting on 1 July.
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.
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.
