Originally published 2019-08-26.
In the summer of 2019, Hong Kong saw the largest protests in its history. They began in June against a government bill that would have allowed people in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China, where courts answer to the Communist Party. Within weeks the movement had grown into a wider campaign for democracy and police accountability, summed up in the slogan "Five demands, not one less."
Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under the "one country, two systems" arrangement, which promised the city a high degree of autonomy, its own courts and freedoms not allowed on the mainland until 2047. By 2019, many residents felt those promises were wearing thin: pro-democracy legislators had been disqualified, activists jailed, and in 2015–2016 five people linked to a Causeway Bay bookshop selling books critical of Beijing's leaders had disappeared, later turning up in mainland custody.
The photographs and posts below cover roughly ten weeks, from the June marches to the August sit-ins at Hong Kong International Airport. They were taken by news agencies, reporters and protesters themselves. Each caption explains where and when the moment happened and why it mattered.
A note on the opening picture: it shows a young masked couple embracing in an MTR station. It appears to be the moment described in the Mei Foo station post from 11 August further down this page, an image that was widely shared as a symbol of tenderness amid tear gas.
June: the marches that started it
On 9 June 2019, organisers said more than a million people marched across Hong Kong Island against the extradition bill; police put the peak figure at 270,000. A week later, on 16 June, organisers claimed nearly two million, while police counted 338,000 on the original route. Whatever the true numbers, both days were among the largest street protests the city had ever seen.
AP (@apnews) on
Associated Press, 12 June 2019. Protesters surrounded the Legislative Council complex to stop lawmakers holding the bill's second reading. Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and beanbag rounds, and the police chief described the clashes as a "riot", a word that became central to the dispute, because rioting carries sentences of up to ten years.
A sea of umbrellas seen from above. Umbrellas had been the emblem of Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement, and in 2019 they returned as practical tools: shields against pepper spray, sun and rain, and a way to hide faces from cameras. The scattered bright colours among the black are typical of the huge June marches.
Protesters in yellow hard hats and masks shelter behind a wall of umbrellas, including a clear one held up as a window. As police tactics hardened, front-line protesters adopted a kind of uniform: black clothing, helmets, goggles and respirators. Even convenience-store umbrellas, like the ones with shop logos seen here, became protective gear.
July: the legislature and Yuen Long
On 15 June Chief Executive Carrie Lam suspended the bill but refused to withdraw it fully. That fell short of what protesters wanted, and the demands widened: full withdrawal, retraction of the "riot" label, release of those arrested, an independent inquiry into police conduct and universal suffrage.
The New York Times (@nytimes) on
The New York Times, 1 July 2019. On the anniversary of Hong Kong's handover, organisers said 550,000 people joined the annual march, while a smaller group of protesters smashed their way into the Legislative Council building and occupied the chamber for several hours, spray-painting slogans before police cleared it after midnight.
AP (@apnews) on
Associated Press, 21 July 2019. That night, after another large march, crowds of men in white shirts, reportedly with links to triad gangs, attacked protesters, passengers and journalists at Yuen Long MTR station. At least 45 people were injured. Police were heavily criticised for arriving long after emergency calls began. The attack is widely seen as a turning point that turned many moderate residents against the police.
11 August: Mei Foo and the injured eye
Sunday 11 August was one of the most violent days of the summer. Police fired tear gas inside Kwai Fong station and pepper-ball rounds down an escalator at Tai Koo station. In Tsim Sha Tsui, a young woman working as a volunteer medic was hit in the right eye by a projectile; protesters and witnesses said it was a police beanbag round, which police disputed. Her eye injury became a rallying symbol within hours.
For those in power who claim Hong Kong's youngsters are nothing but rioters, this is the tenderest retort. A young couple share a moment after finding respite from tear gas and advancing ranks of riot police in Mei Foo MTR station. #HK #AntiELAB #HongKongProtests #HKRomeoJuliet pic.twitter.com/vg7WrLvneJ
— James Pomfret (@jamespomfret) August 11, 2019
Reuters reporter James Pomfret, 11 August 2019. His post shows a couple sharing a quiet moment in Mei Foo MTR station after escaping tear gas and advancing riot police. Shared under the hashtag #HKRomeoJuliet, it was read by many as a gentle answer to official descriptions of young protesters as rioters.
(The Instagram post originally embedded here is no longer available.)
This spot once held an Instagram post from the Taiwanese channel 志祺七七 (@shasha77.daily), dated 11 August 2019, which has since been removed by its owner.
The airport sit-ins
From late July, and again from 9 August, thousands of protesters held sit-ins in the arrivals hall of Hong Kong International Airport, one of the world's busiest, to explain their cause to arriving travellers. After the eye injury, the crowds swelled. On 12 and 13 August, flights were cancelled and check-in was suspended. On the night of 13 August, some protesters tied up and assaulted a man identified as a reporter for China's state-run Global Times; protest groups apologised the next morning, and a court injunction soon limited protests at the airport.
Reuters (@reuters) on
Reuters, 12 August 2019. Protesters dressed mostly in black fill the arrivals area as the airport authority cancels departures for the rest of the day. The sit-in was largely peaceful, with people sitting on the floor, holding banners and handing out leaflets in several languages.
Reuters (@reuters) on
Reuters, 13 August 2019. On the second day of disruption, protesters blocked passages to the departure gates using luggage trolleys. The day ended in scuffles with travellers and clashes with riot police outside the terminal, which drew criticism even from some supporters.
The arrivals hall seen from above, packed from wall to wall with seated protesters. The airport was chosen deliberately: it gave the movement an international audience and was seen as a place where police would be less likely to use force.
A hand-painted cardboard sign apologising to travellers "for the inconvenience caused" while explaining that the protesters were fighting for freedom. Apology signs like this became a hallmark of the airport sit-ins, reflecting the movement's effort to win over visitors rather than alienate them.
Two protesters hold up a hand-lettered sheet with a similar message about the future of their home. Behind them, people sit on the floor of the arrivals hall among water bottles, backpacks and leaflets. Many of the sit-in participants were students on their summer holidays.
A mock boarding pass for "Hong Kongers", flight HK809 from "Hongkong" to "Freedom", dated 9 August. Leaflets in this style appear to have been handed out to arriving passengers. The code printed on it includes 20190609, the date of the first mass march on 9 June.
A protester's poster shows a cartoon of Carrie Lam ignoring the "5 major demands" while the panel next to it lists tear gas, bullets and triads, a reference to police tactics and the Yuen Long attack. The cardboard sign beside it is written in Japanese, one of several languages protesters used to reach tourists from Japan, Korea and Europe.
"An eye for an eye": the symbol of the injured medic
Protesters are standing covering their eye in honour of a woman who was hit in the eye by Hong Kong police - an event that triggered the airport protests today and yesterday pic.twitter.com/sCIea2KYBK
— Erin Hale (@erinhale) August 13, 2019
Journalist Erin Hale, 13 August 2019. Protesters at the airport stand with one eye covered in solidarity with the injured woman. The gesture spread quickly across Hong Kong and around the world, appearing in rallies, street art and on social media profiles.
A young woman wearing a gauze eye patch holds a drawing of Pepe the Frog in a yellow hard hat with an injured eye, under the words "Police shot my eye". In Hong Kong, Pepe was used as a cheerful protest mascot, with no connection to the far-right meaning the cartoon had picked up in the United States. The Chinese text demands that the eye be returned.
More protesters with covered eyes and hand-drawn posters, including "Pray for eye" and the slogan usually rendered as "an eye for an eye". The Chinese placards repeat "five demands, not one less" and demand the return of the eye. The bandaged eye remained one of the most recognisable images of the movement.
Night rallies in Central
Thousands of people raise phone lights behind a huge banner reading "Free Hong Kong, Democracy Now" at a night rally in Central, surrounded by office towers. This appears to be one of the mid-August rallies at Chater Garden aimed at foreign governments, including the "Stand with Hong Kong, Power to the People" gathering organised by student groups.
Red placards with the same slogan at a night rally. The smaller Chinese text calls for withdrawal of the bill and a return of freedom. On 18 August, organisers said 1.7 million people joined a rally in Victoria Park despite heavy rain; police counted far fewer, but it passed without major clashes.
What happened after these photos
On 4 September 2019 Carrie Lam announced that the bill would be formally withdrawn, and it was removed from the legislature on 23 October. Protesters said it was too little, too late, and kept pressing their other demands. The autumn brought some of the most intense clashes, a ban on face masks under emergency powers and the sieges of university campuses in November. In district council elections on 24 November, pro-democracy candidates won a landslide on record turnout.
The protests faded during the COVID-19 pandemic, and on 30 June 2020 Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong. Many activist groups disbanded, prominent campaigners were prosecuted or left the city, and independent newspapers closed. Carrie Lam did not resign during the protests; she stepped down at the end of her term in 2022. These photographs now stand as a record of a summer when millions of people tried to shape their city's future.
Sources: Embedded posts by The New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters, James Pomfret and Erin Hale; photographers of the gallery images were not credited in the copies that circulated online. Background: Wikipedia: 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests; Wikipedia: Timeline of the Hong Kong protests (August 2019); Wikipedia: 2019 Yuen Long attack.
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