Hong Kong: From Anti-extradition to Anti-authoritarian Movement

The Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement in Hong Kong, spanning February 2019 to January 2020, emerged as a resilient and unprecedented social movement. It began in opposition to a proposed bill enabling the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China, Macau, and Taiwan, framed as a threat to Hong Kong's rule of law and civil liberties. The movement saw nearly 45% of Hong Kong's population participating, with a leaderless and decentralized structure where ordinary citizens and informal networks coordinated protests. Its impact was significant, leading to the opposition's landslide victory in the November 2019 district council elections. The movement's unique organizational dynamics, characterized by distributed leadership and alignment with theories on political processes and protest policing, set it apart from other global protests. The chapter analyses the evolution of Hong Kong's prodemocracy movements, focusing on the Umbrella Movement and the Anti-Extradition Movement. The Umbrella Movement's spontaneous, citizen-led nature laid the groundwork for the more structured Anti-Extradition Movement, which emerged from the coexistence between self-mobilized citizens and a leadership structure. The post-Umbrella period saw the rise of radical localists and increased state repression, leading to persistent but fragmented dissent.