Sju aktivister fängslade för protesterna i Hongkong

The 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, also known as the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement (Chinese: 反對逃犯條例修訂草案運動), took place from 2019 to 2020 in response to the introduction by the Hong Kong government of the Fugitive Offenders amendment bill on extradition, which was later withdrawn in September 2019. The protests began with a sit-in at the government headquarters on 15 March 2019 and a demonstration attended by hundreds of thousands on 9 June 2019, followed by a gathering outside the Legislative Council Complex to stall the bill's second reading on 12 June. On 16 June, just one day after the Hong Kong government suspended the bill, an even bigger protest took place to push for its complete withdrawal and in reaction to the perceived excessive use of force by the Hong Kong Police Force on 12 June. As the protests progressed, activists laid out five key demands (see Objectives). Police inaction during the 2019 Yuen Long attack and 2019 Prince Edward station attack further escalated the protests. Lam withdrew the bill on 4 September, but refused to concede the other four demands. A month later, she invoked the emergency powers to implement an anti-mask law. Confrontations escalated and intensified. The storming of the Legislative Council in July 2019, the deaths of Chow Tsz-lok and Luo Changqing, the shooting of an unarmed protester, and the sieges of two universities in November 2019 were landmark events. After the conflict at Chinese University and siege of the Polytechnic University, the unprecedented landslide victory of the pro-democracy camp in the District Council election in November and the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 brought a little respite. Tensions mounted again in May 2020 after Beijing's decision to promulgate a national security bill for Hong Kong before September. The approval ratings of the government and the police plunged to their lowest points since the 1997 handover. The Central People's Government alleged that foreign powers were instigating the conflict, although the protests have been largely described as "leaderless". The United States passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on 27 November 2019 in response to the protest movement. The tactics and methods used in Hong Kong inspired other protests that followed worldwide.