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For months, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has been in a tense standoff with local authorities and Beijing in the latest struggle for the future of this Chinese territory. Check back here for the latest developments

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Hong Kong, Nov. 19: A protester explores a sewer tunnel under Hong Kong Polytechnic University to see how wide it is as he and others try to find an escape route. The campus has been under siege for three days by police seeking to arrest the protesters trapped inside.ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images

The latest

  • About 100 protesters remained in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Tuesday as a police siege of the occupied campus entered its third day. Several groups have tried to escape, including one that slid down hoses from an overpass to waiting motorcycles, but it didn’t appear that many evaded arrest.
  • Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, said Tuesday she hoped the standoff could be resolved and she had told police to handle it humanely. She claimed that about 600 people had left the campus by Tuesday morning.
  • Meanwhile in mainland China, the National People’s Congress hinted Tuesday that it might overrule the Hong Kong High Court ruling that struck down a ban on face masks. The mask ban was aimed at preventing protesters from hiding their identity and evading arrest.
  • Hong Kong also got a new police chief, Chris Tang, who said his priorities would include rebutting accusations against police that he called “fake news” and reassuring the public about the force’s mission. Chief Tang replaces a retiring chief and was approved by Beijing after being nominated by Ms. Lam’s government.


What the protesters want

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A protester holds posters showing Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam.DALE DE LA REY/AFP/Getty Images

When Hong Kong changed hands from British to Communist Chinese rule in 1997, the superpowers agreed to a “one country, two systems” policy that guaranteed semi-autonomy. But since China’s President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, Beijing’s apparent efforts to weaken that policy have been met with sometimes violent protests. In 2014′s Umbrella Revolution, the point of contention was China’s plan to take a more active role in choosing Hong Kong’s political leaders. Two years later, the abduction and interrogation of several Hong Kong booksellers raised fears of China’s suppression of free speech and dissent.

This time around, it started as a debate about extradition law. Earlier this year, chief executive Carrie Lam’s government considered a bill that, for the first time, would allow Hong Kong citizens accused of crimes to be extradited to mainland China to face trial. The bill was a response to the case of Chan Tong-kai, a Hong Kong man who told police there that he killed his girlfriend in Taiwan, which does not have an extradition deal with Hong Kong. Ms. Lam said the laws needed to be amended to prevent Hong Kong from becoming a “fugitive offenders’ haven.” But opponents said it would erode Hong Kong’s independence and subject residents to a Chinese justice system dominated by the Communist Party, with few protections for civil rights.

Since March, waves of demonstrations against the proposal eventually led Ms. Lam to suspend it indefinitely and declare that “the bill is dead,” and then to officially withdraw it on Sept. 4. But withdrawing the bill was only one of five of the protesters’ key demands, and Ms. Lam has still refused to agree to the other four. They are:

  • an inquiry into the police violence that demonstrators have faced over recent months;
  • Ms. Lam’s resignation;
  • amnesty for the demonstrators who’ve been arrested;
  • guarantees of genuine democracy in Hong Kong.

Key moments in the protests so far

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June 12: Protesters in Hong Kong face off with police after they fired tear gas.ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images

Mid-June: As the legislature prepares for the extradition bill’s second reading, thousands of protesters occupy the main government complex until police with tear gas and rubber bullets disperse them by force. Dozens are injured. By June 16, Ms. Lam says the bill is delayed, offers a statement of contrition for “deficiencies in our work” but does not apologize for the law and refuses to withdraw it.

Aug. 5: Demonstrators hold Hong Kong’s first general strike in 50 years, bringing transportation to a halt. Many businesses close to support the strike and scores of flights are cancelled as airport employees call in sick in apparent solidarity with the strikers. Police fire an estimated 1,000 rounds of tear gas and about 160 rubber bullets to suppress the uprisings. Hundreds are arrested.

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Aug. 13: Fu Guohao, a reporter with China's state-owned Global Times, is tied by protesters during a mass demonstration at Hong Kong International Airport.Tyrone Siu/Reuters

Aug. 12-13: Demonstrators hold peaceful sit-ins at Hong Kong’s International Airport, singing and chanting by the thousands in the terminal. The occupation takes an ugly turn when protesters detain an injured man and a reporter from the state-run Global Times newspaper, each of whom they suspect of being Chinese undercover agents. Busloads of armoured riot police break up the protest. When flights reopen on Aug. 14, a few dozen protesters remain at the airport, some holding signs with contrite messages: “We’re deeply sorry about what happened yesterday. We were desperate and we made imperfect decisions. Please accept our apologies.”

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Aug. 23: People hold hands and use their phone flashlights as they form a human chain in Hong Kong.ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 23: Taking a cue from anti-Soviet demonstrations in the Baltic countries in the final years of the Cold War, Hong Kong protesters form a human chain, dubbed the “Hong Kong Way,” in public places throughout the city. Organizers say some 119,000 people stood in line over more than 50 kilometres to show peaceful opposition to Ms. Lam’s government.

Sept. 4: Ms. Lam gives a televised announcement saying the extradition bill has been withdrawn “in order to fully allay public concerns.” She does not accede to the other four demands of the protest movement, and several pro-democracy leaders describe the move as too little, too late.

Oct. 1: China’s National Day, the anniversary of Mao Zedong’s founding of the People’s Republic of China, triggers new uprisings in which police shoot a protester with live ammunition. The 18-year-old survives, but is charged with rioting. In response to attacks on police, the government uses a colonial-era emergency law to ban protesters from wearing masks, though weeks later the law is struck down by Hong Kong’s High Court as unconstitutional.

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Nov. 18: Police in riot gear move through a cloud of smoke at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.Ng Han Guan/The Associated Press

November: Reports in mainland Chinese media in mid-November suggest a curfew is imminent, provoking new protests. The protesters’ activities shift to university campuses, notably Hong Kong Polytechnic, where hundreds of demonstrators occupy buildings, barricade them against police attack and amass arsenals of Molotov cocktails, bows and arrows and rocks. Police lay siege to the campus with tear gas and rubber bullets on Nov. 17, erecting their own barricades to keep protesters in.

What’s at stake for China

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Shenzhen, Aug. 12: Satellite footage appears to show Chinese security force vehicles inside the Shenzen Bay Sports Center.Maxar Technologies/via The Associated Press

From Hong Kong’s democracy protesters to the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, Mr. Xi’s government has spent recent years cracking down aggressively on what he perceives as threats to Chinese unity and public order.

Beijing has labelled the Hong Kong protests as an extremist movement and mobilized the mainland’s military to combat it. In Shenzhen, across the bay from Hong Kong, a sports centre was turned into a staging area for armoured personnel carriers and soldiers practising detention tactics.

How the West has responded

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Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.Dave Chidley/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Canada: Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has called for restraint on both sides of the Hong Kong dispute. Canada has issued travel advisories urging citizens to avoid demonstrations, and Canadian universities have been urging and assisting their exchange students in Hong Kong to come home.

United States: President Donald Trump’s response to the standoff has so far been muted, with some media reports suggesting that he’s resisted appeals from aides to take a tougher stand. On Aug. 18 he said that a Tiananmen Square-style bloodbath in Hong Kong would make it “very hard” for Beijing and Washington to settle their months-long trade war.

More reading

The Globe in Hong Kong: Reports from Nathan VanderKlippe

The picture of protest: Hong Kong demonstrations propelled by art

Hong Kong protesters defy China’s threat with massive, peaceful rally

Canadians advised to exercise high degree of caution in Hong Kong as critics urge Ottawa to dispatch more resources

How Hong Kong’s protesters have ‘already reached a point of no return’

Love and hopelessness: as protests sweep Hong Kong, one couple decides against kids

Opinion and analysis

Frank Ching: Happy birthday to China – and its revisionist history

Christian Leuprecht: Hong Kong’s protests have blown up the founding myths of Communist China

Editorial: In Hong Kong, Carrie Lam just admitted what everyone knows: Beijing calls the shots

Doug Saunders: For Xi Jinping, Hong Kong represents a crossroads between power or legitimacy

Tom Grimmer: Hong Kong’s revolution, born of despair and ennui, meets a crushing reality

Colin Robertson: As champions of liberty and democracy, G7 leaders must speak out on Hong Kong

Minxin Pei: Hong Kong must not take a Tiananmen turn


Compiled by Globe staff

With reports from Associated Press, Reuters and Nathan VanderKlippe


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