Five Demands, Not One Less

Protests began in Hong Kong in spring of 2019 in response to a proposed bill that would have allowed the Hong Kong government to consider extradition requests of suspected criminals from outside countries, including mainland China. The protests drew hundreds of thousands of people for over six months and was at times violent. An especially fraught weekend happened at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University in mid-November where police and protesters clashed with tear gas, thousands of molotov cocktails, various homemade weapons and a threat from the local police to use live ammunition. The "battle" ended with hundreds of protesters trapped on the campus as police blocked all of the exits for nearly two weeks. 

The protests have become a movement with five demands of the Hong Kong government: withdrawal of the extradition bill, an inquiry into police brutality, for the leader Carrie Lam to step down, for those arrested to be released, and greater democratic freedoms.