HONG KONG — The protests that have shaken Hong Kong this summer began with huge demonstrations in early June against an unpopular bill. Since then, they have become a broader movement against Beijing’s power in the semiautonomous territory.
Over several months, violent clashes between young protesters and the police have become more frequent, and the demonstrators’ demands have gotten more diverse and ambitious. Activists have stormed government offices, halted public transportation and defaced symbols of Beijing’s authority. And the use of force against demonstrators, along with the failure to prevent a mob attack on train passengers, has made police conduct a central issue. On Sept. 4, Hong Kong’s chief executive said she would satisfy one of the protesters’ central demands by withdrawing the extradition bill. But it may not be enough to appease the protesters, who are now driven by multiple grievances with the government.
Here’s a guide to what prompted the protests, how they evolved and why it all matters.
What is Hong Kong’s relationship with China?
Hong Kong, an international finance hub on China’s southern coast, was a British colony until 1997, when it was handed back to China under a policy known as “one country, two systems.”
The policy made Hong Kong part of China but let it keep many liberties denied to citizens on the mainland, including free speech, unrestricted internet access and the right to free assembly. The territory has its own laws, system of government and police force under a mini-constitution known as the Basic Law. China promised that this system would remain in place until at least 2047.
But many Hong Kongers feel that Beijing is already chipping away at its autonomy, and that the local government does its bidding. The territory’s top leader, the chief executive — currently Carrie Lam — is appointed by a pro-Beijing committee. And China’s security apparatus has made troubling intrusions into Hong Kong territory, including abducting booksellers and a Chinese-born billionaire.
Why did people start protesting?
In February, the local government introduced a bill in Hong Kong’s legislature, which is stacked with pro-China lawmakers, that would allow people accused of crimes to be sent to places with which Hong Kong had no extradition treaty — including mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the Communist Party.
Mrs. Lam, the chief executive, argued that the bill was needed to guarantee justice for victims. She said it was prompted by the case of a man who was accused of killing his girlfriend in Taiwan, then evading prosecution by fleeing to Hong Kong. Critics say the bill would allow Beijing to target dissidents in Hong Kong with phony charges.
Hundreds of thousands of people, including elderly residents and families with children, joined a march to oppose the bill on June 9.
Why have the demonstrations continued?
The discussion and demands changed on June 12, when the police used pepper spray, batons and more than 150 canisters of tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters, a small number of whom had thrown projectiles at the police.
The violence raised the pressure on Mrs. Lam, and on June 15 she suspended the extradition bill, later calling it “dead.” But she refused to withdraw it entirely until Sept. 4, when she announced she would formally withdraw the bill. It was unclear, however, whether that decision would be enough to quell the protest movement, which over the summer developed several more ambitious demands.
Fueled by anger toward the police, as well as the slow erosion of civil liberties, the largely leaderless protests morphed into a broader, more complicated movement about protecting freedoms, democracy and Hong Kong’s autonomy. The list of protesters’ demands has grown to include an independent investigation into the police response, amnesty for arrested participants and direct elections for all lawmakers and the chief executive.
The demonstrations have continued, and a vast majority of the participants have been nonviolent. A peaceful march on June 16 was the biggest in Hong Kong’s history — as many as two million people may have joined it.
But clashes between the police and young protesters in hard hats, masks and black T-shirts have escalated sharply. Hundreds of demonstrators broke into the Legislative Council building in July, occupying it for hours and vandalizing it. Later that month, protesters defaced China’s national emblem on the central government’s main office in the city.
That night, a mob of more than 100 men armed with rods attacked protesters and bystanders at a train station, injuring dozens. The police were late to arrive and initially made no arrests; some of the people later arrested appear to have ties to the organized crime groups known as triads. The episode shocked the city and appears to have deepened anger toward the police, who have been accused of letting the attack happen.
The demonstrators have become more fluid in their tactics, moving from place to place around the city (“Be water,” a line from the Hong Kong actor Bruce Lee, has become a rallying cry). They have staged strikes, surrounded police stations, thrown bricks and lit fires, and the police have ramped up their use of tear gas, deployed water cannons and sent officers undercover among the protesters.
In August, the protests reached a new pitch: mass demonstrations briefly shut down air traffic at the Hong Kong airport; as many as 1.7 million defied the police to peacefully march through the city center; and street battles erupted around the city in the worst violence since June.
How have the governments of Hong Kong and China responded?
Beijing has stood behind Mrs. Lam and slowly ratcheted up its warnings to the protesters. In early August, for instance, Yang Guang, an official in Beijing’s office for Hong Kong affairs, warned, “I want to warn all the criminals to not wrongly judge the situation and take restraint for weakness.”
A “blow from the sword of law is waiting for them in the future,” he said.
But Chinese officials have largely left it to Mrs. Lam to quell the unrest.
Until Sept. 4, she had refused to make further concessions to the protesters, and appeared confident that her government could ride out the unrest. Although she announced she would withdraw the extradition bill, she declined to open an independent inquiry into police conduct.
Chinese officials, despite their increasingly strident warnings, have not said how Hong Kong, or China, might resolve the crisis. Though the Chinese military hinted in July that it was ready to step in, Hong Kong officials have denied that they planned to ask for military intervention, which the Basic Law allows.