In the Summer of 2019, Hong Kongers organized historic protests against the Chinese Communist Party's influence on their government. This led to intense clashes between protesters and police that lasted months. As the CCP's grip tightens on Hong Kong, the youth continues to find creative ways to carry on their movement, despite the risk of brutal beatdowns, mass arrests, and merciless persecution.
Following the sieges on the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University, the local district council elections saw a major victory for democratic candidates across the region. Although the extradition bill that sparked the movement was withdrawn months ago, the movement became about the future of the special administrative region, with four of the five demands still unaddressed. Last week marked the six month anniversary and saw one of the largest marches since the movement’s start in June.
October 1st was China’s National Day, but for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, it was dubbed the national day of mourning. All over Hong Kong, people marched against the Hong Kong administration and the Chinese Communist Party.
September 29th saw some of the most violent clashes between police and protesters in Hong Kong so far. Just two days ahead of the National Day of the People's Republic of China, protesters battled police in the street, throwing bricks, rocks, molotov cocktails, and other projectiles. Police fired tear gas, pepper balls, and water cannons at the protesters, but these were no ordinary water cannons.
Hong Kong has been rocked by protests for months since the proposal of an extradition bill, but now the movement has grown to encompass much more. Recently, violence between protesters and police have escalated and put the city on edge. Subverse News's Emily Molli went on the ground to see what goes on during these protests and to talk to people involved in this movement.
The protests in Hong Kong have been able to mobilize over a million people. The weeks of demonstrations have massive turnouts and the movement has five demands, one of which was met today by Chief Executive Carrie Lam-- withdrawing the extradition bill that kicked off the protests. Subverse News spoke with a protester on the front lines of the demonstrations about the tactics and strategies used to organize and communicate, as well as the challenges of misinformation and more.
