Hundreds of thousands of people in Hong Kong, a city of about seven million, protested a contentious extradition law on June 9. Photo / Lam Yik Fei, The New York Times
Hundreds of thousands of people in Hong Kong, a city of about seven million, protested a contentious extradition law on June 9. Photo / Lam Yik Fei, The New York Times
The demonstrations created the Chinese territory's worst political crisis in years, ensnaring Beijing, Washington and foreign businesses, including the NBA. Here's a guide to what's happening.
At first, the hundreds of thousands of peaceful Hong Kong demonstrators who took to the streets in June were focused on contentious, local legislation that would have allowed extraditions to the Chinese mainland.
But as the list of demands grew in the semiautonomous territory, and as clashes between police and protesters increased, the movement took on greater global importance.
China has viewed the protests as a challenge to its fervent nationalism, while democracy supporters worldwide have cheered what they see as a poke in the eye of the autocratic Chinese government. It all comes amid a rancorous trade war between China and the United States, and some international businesses have found themselves stuck in a political mess they wanted no part of.
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.
China's leader, Xi Jinping, right, presiding over the inauguration ceremony for Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam, second from right, and her executive council in 2017. Photo / AP
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 she recently used her emergency powers to single-handedly enact a ban on face masks at protests, bypassing the partially elected legislature.
In February, the local government introduced a bill, since scrapped, that would have allowed 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. Lam argued that the bill was needed to guarantee justice in cases like a man who was accused of killing his girlfriend in Taiwan, then evaded prosecution by fleeing to Hong Kong. Critics said the bill would allow Beijing to target dissidents in Hong Kong with phony charges, exposing activists to China's opaque legal system.
Protesters threw back tear gas canisters fired by police outside the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong on June 12. Photo / Lam Yik Fei, The New York Times
Hundreds of thousands of people, including elderly residents and families with children, joined a peaceful march to oppose the bill June 9. But June 12, the discussion and demands changed when 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 police.
Irate at the police response, protesters demanded an independent investigation of the police force — a demand leaders have refused. Anger toward police has grown precipitously since then, as has violence on both sides.
Why have the demonstrations turned violent?
Fueled by anger toward 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 amnesty for arrested participants and direct elections for all lawmakers and the chief executive.
Only one of their demands has been met: the withdrawal of the extradition bill. So protesters have continued to take over streets and have adapted their tactics in hopes of forcing the government's hand.
A minority of protesters has become increasingly violent. Demonstrators commonly throw bricks and molotov cocktails at riot police. Photo / Lam Yik Fei, The New York Times
While the vast majority of participants have been nonviolent, clashes between police and young protesters in hard hats, masks and black T-shirts have escalated sharply. Police have used water cannons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets while dispersing crowds, and their tactics have been criticized by protesters and international watchdogs. Videos of particularly brutal arrests have infuriated protesters, especially a scene from October in which a police officer shot a protester in the chest with a live round.
Having felt their peaceful rallies were ineffective, a minority of protesters has become increasingly violent. The violent demonstrators have thrown bricks and Molotov cocktails, and in one case stabbed a police officer. Police say that one homemade bomb has been detonated during a protest. On several occasions, protesters have doled out vigilante justice, beating people who were perceived to be against their movement. And there has been considerable property damage to the train system, which protesters have accused of supporting police, and businesses seen as pro-China.
Still, nonviolent protests have continued. The demonstrators have staged strikes, surrounded police stations, shut down the airport and formed huge marches, while the city's creative class has turned protest into art and song.
Much of the international intrigue is based on closely examining how China responds to the protests and how much democracy its leaders can stomach in its efforts to prove its model works.
Thus far, fears of a Tiananmen-style crackdown have not borne out. The Chinese military has a garrison in Hong Kong, but its deployment is widely seen as a worst-case scenario that all sides want to avoid. The international business community would likely see a military intervention as the end of "one country, two systems," and an exodus of businesses could soon follow.
Instead, China has tried to turn public opinion against the protesters. The state media has depicted them as violent separatists, even though most protesters say they are uninterested in independence. The state media fanned the flames of a backlash against the NBA after a team executive expressed support of the protests on Twitter.
The issue has added another layer of intrigue to the ongoing trade discussions between the United States and China. Democratic and Republican politicians have been largely united in support of the protests, but President Donald Trump has been more muted.
Why is there bipartisan agreement in the United States on supporting the protesters?
It's a rare source of across-the-aisle unity. There aren't many issues that would bring together Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., but they were among a bipartisan coalition to sign the same letter in support of the protesters. Other politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, have been in virtually unanimous agreement.
A rally in Hong Kong on Monday evening calling for the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Photo / Lam Yik Fei, The New York Times
It stems from a shared distrust of the Chinese government, a much broader issue that often creates agreement between Republicans and Democrats. China's authoritarian model is considered a wide-ranging threat to the United States, and the pro-democracy, anti-China sentiment of the protests aligns with popular American attitudes.
The protesters' supporters in the United States, and elsewhere in the world, see them as being on the right side of a battle between democracy and authoritarianism. They view supporting the protesters as supporting the concept of democracy.
