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Sum Lok-kei

Liang Bin, a law student from Hong Kong, checks the online forum LIHKG every 15 minutes to keep up with the fast-developing anti-extradition movement.
“It is a bit exhausting,” said Liang, 35. “It’s more tiring than work.”
It all began in early June, when a rally against the government’s polarising extradition bill drew an estimated 1 million Hongkongers to the streets.
When the government refused to back down, netizens quickly drew up a plan to surround Hong Kong’s legislature on June 12, in a bid to stop the bill’s passage.
Has Carrie Lam lost Hong Kong in push for extradition bill?
Instead of asking protesters to besiege the Legislative Council, they created online events inviting people to a “picnic” at nearby Tamar Park, in Admiralty.
Tens of thousands responded and successfully locked down the area, in a mass demonstration that eventually led to the suspension of the bill.
Despite being exhausted from joining the protests, Liang has continued to browse LIHKG for ongoing discussions related to the movement.

Netizens and pressure groups are now demanding the bill’s full withdrawal. They also want arrested protesters not to be prosecuted, and have called for a probe into alleged use of force by the police.
In their latest feat on Tuesday, netizens raised more than HK$5 million to place letters on the front pages of the Financial Times and The New York Times, urging the international community to support the movement.
The bill aimed to let Hong Kong transfer suspects on a case-by-case basis to jurisdictions with which it does not have extradition agreements, including mainland China.
Extradition law: one country, two systems and a vicious circle of mistrust
Critics fear it will allow Beijing to target political opponents, noting that fair trials are not guaranteed on the mainland.
According to a survey of hundreds of people questioned in protest zones this month, Liang is not alone in using online platforms that allow users to speak anonymously.
The survey was done by Dr Edmund Cheng Wai, an assistant professor at Baptist University’s Department of Government and International Studies, together with other scholars. It found about a third of respondents used the online forum LIHKG, which is dubbed “Hong Kong Reddit” and known for emphasising freedom of speech.
While it did not play a direct role in the anti-extradition movement, its administrators pulled all advertisements from the platform for about two weeks in June to shorten loading time.
They also extended the number of replies allowed on some threads from 1,001 to 5,001 “for more convenient discussions”.
The view from Singapore: Hong Kong is a city tearing itself apart
More than half of those polled also used Telegram, the encrypted mobile messaging app for broadcasting information and forming private and open discussion groups.
Data from another survey, answered by more than 1,000 people at two rallies, indicated the anti-extradition movement included many first-time demonstrators, with more than a fifth saying they had never been to a mass protest before. About one in five were aged 25 or younger.
Cheng described the anti-extradition movement as “a decentralised movement with no leaders”.
“Participants mostly networked through social media platforms that share instant information and deliberate on their next moves,” he said.
Hong Kong protests: is this a colour revolution?
Trading firm worker Adam Yip Yat-san, 32, who took part in the recent protests, agreed with Cheng’s assessment and said it was different to the 2014 Occupy protests that shut down several parts of the city for 79 days. “During Occupy, we mostly listened to the ‘main stage’ and cooperated, as we were young and inexperienced with mass resistance,” he said.
On online platforms, the term “main stage” often refers to the students and pro-democracy groups that coordinated actions during the 2014 protests.
This time, Yip said, people turned to online platforms, such as LIHKG, for information and made up their minds themselves whether to participate.

Other protesters interviewed said the same.
Dale, an IT worker in his mid-20s who declined to give his full name, explained that people were free to express their ideas on online platforms, and that users picked the next course of action by supporting – or “upvoting” – the ideas they liked best.
One post which attracted more than 9,000 upvotes suggested that people lay a white flower in Admiralty to remember the protester who fell to his death on June 15.
Can Hong Kong’s protesters succeed without a leader?
The day after it appeared, marchers turned an area outside Pacific Place into a shrine filled with white chrysanthemums for the 35-year-old protester, surnamed Leung.
But not every decision made online has been carried out successfully.
During the 15-hour siege of police headquarters in Wan Chai on June 21, political group Demosisto organised a poll on Telegram, asking if protesters preferred to leave or stay.




Although more than 80 per cent voted to leave before midnight, protesters only cleared out at 2.40am the next day.
Going online also allowed protesters to stay anonymous, something they carried through at the protests. Most demonstrators turned up wearing masks, and some urged photographers not to take close-up shots of them.
Apparently they were keen to avoid what happened during the Mong Kok unrest of 2016, when about 40 protesters were charged with rioting offences.
One of the activists in that incident, Edward Leung Tin-kei, a former spokesman of the political group Hong Kong Indigenous, was sentenced to six years in jail for his part in the unrest.
In the recent protests, some people prefaced online comments on their involvement with phrases such as “I dreamt that…”, in an apparent bid to avoid liability.
Others avoided mentioning the word “protest” altogether, choosing instead to say they were joining a “picnic” outside the legislature.
Cheng speculated that using such terms allowed protesters to differentiate between insiders and outsiders on the protest grounds.

He noted that the online platforms also helped restrain most protesters from taking radical action.
“On the one hand they were very passionate, but the most popular posts [on LIHKG] also told people to watch out for traps and heed public opinion,” Cheung said.
Professor Francis Lee Lap-fung, director of Chinese University’s School of Journalism and Communication, said decentralisation was possible in the recent protests because technology allowed people to form small groups to initiate and coordinate their actions.
How Asia sees Hong Kong’s extradition bill protests
He said decentralisation also fulfilled the purpose of the current movement.
“The movement needs a diverse range of tactics and actions in order to exert stronger pressure on the government, but it is difficult for one main organiser to do that,” Lee said.
While pro-democracy groups had organised mass rallies and marches against the bill, netizens took the initiative in launching smaller and more mobile protests, such as when protesters twice disrupted government departments’ operations by blocking entrances to buildings.
Lee said the current movement allowed people to participate in whatever way they preferred. “In these ways it empowers the movement,” he said.
However, the decentralised nature of the current movement is not without pitfalls.
Despite preparations made before June 12, Dale said cooperation among protesters was not optimal on the day itself, as poor mobile signals made it almost impossible to go online.
“We did not know if we should push forward, or when to do so,” he said.
Laura, 18, a student who also declined to give her full name, ran into the same problem while volunteering as a first-aider.
“Without Telegram and WhatsApp, people did not know what they had to do,” she said.
James, a protester in his mid-20s, cautioned against relying on online polls to make decisions.
“There are too many fake accounts and infiltrators online, the results can be easily affected,” he said.
He felt it would be better for protesters to form small groups on various sites to plan their next moves.
Looking ahead, Cheng said protesters might find it hard to sustain the decentralised nature of the movement.
Extradition law mess: don’t blame Beijing, blame naive Lam
Another issue, he said, was whether participation in the street protests would translate into long-term political involvement, such as showing up to vote.
“The challenge lies with mobilising people in the next political crisis, and whether the government can still be restricted,” Cheng said.
Laura said it would be hard to sustain the movement if netizens became disenfranchised.
“When there isn’t someone feeding you information constantly, you might care less,” she said.
For now, the movement continues despite uncertainty.
On Wednesday night, Liang and thousands of Hongkongers rallied at Edinburgh Place in Central, in a bid to launch the anti-extradition issue into the G20 summit in Japan.
Liang said it was clever to elevate the issue to the international level, but added that the prolonged campaign had begun reminding him of the Occupy movement.
“Officials are employing the same delay tactics, hoping protesters will make mistakes and lead to a change in public opinion,” Liang said.
“But it is impossible for them to be evasive forever.” ■


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Online messaging services played a key role in Hong Kong’s anti-extradition protests. Photo: Winson Wong

Anti-extradition protestors outside of the Department of Justice in Central. 27JUN19 SCMP / Winson Wong

Aerial drone view of anti-extradition bill protesters gathering outside the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar, Admiralty, to demand the government scrapping the proposed extradition bill. 12JUN19 SCMP/ May Tse

Protesters remained on the streets overnight after a march from Causeway Bay to the Central Government Offices in Tamar, Admiralty, against the extradition bill and calling on city leader (chief executive) Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to resign. 17JUN19 SCMP / Sam Tsang

protesters who are against the extradition bill gather around the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar overnight. 12JUN19 SCMP / Edmond So

Has Carrie Lam lost Hong Kong in her bid to push through extradition bill?

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on June 18 apologises to the public for causing “disputes and anxieties in society”, two days after an estimated 2 million people took to the streets in protest of a proposed extradition bill. Photo: Sam Tsang

Protesters march outside Pacific Place in Admiralty to the Central Government Offices in Tamar calling on city leader (chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor) to resign. Nearly 2 million protesters flooded the streets of Hong Kong during the anti-extradition protest. 16JUN19 SCMP / Dickson Lee

FILE - In this file photo taken Wednesday, June 12, 2019, riot police try to disperse protesters with fire tear gas outside the Legislative Council in Hong Kong. Hong Kong police have resorted to harsher-than-usual tactics to suppress protesters this week in the city's most violent turmoil in decades. Police fired rubber bullets and beanbag rounds at the crowds, weapons that have not been widely used in recent history. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

A banner reading "This is Hong Kong, Not China" hangs from an over pass outside the Legislative Council building during a demonstration in Hong Kong, China, on Friday, June 21, 2019. Hong Kong protesters, including student groups, resumed demonstrations in the city center Friday to demand Chief Executive Carrie Lam step down. Photographer: Eduardo Leal/Bloomberg

Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor speaks at a press conference at the Central Government's Offices in Tamar, Admiralty, as she announces the suspension of the reading of the extradition bill amendment proposal. 18JUN19 SCMP / K. Y. Cheng

Aerial drone view of protestors besieging the Police Headquarters in Wan Chai, as Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor failed to fully withdraw the extradition bill as demanded yesterday. 21JUN19 SCMP / Martin Chan

People protest on Lung Wo Road outside the Central Government Offices in Tamar, Admiralty, against the extradition bill and calling on city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to resign. 17JUN19 SCMP / Dickson Lee

Protesters holding up an effigy of chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor march to the Central Government Offices in Tamar on the extradition bill and calling on the city leader to resign. 16JUN19 SCMP / Sam Tsang

Police firing tear gas canister in front of Central Government Offices in Admiralty to keep anti-extradition bill protesters away from Central Government Offices and Legislative Council Complex nearby. 12JUN19 SCMP/ Sam Tsang

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam. Photo: Sam Tsang

Hong Kong government shows signs of life as protesters push on with international campaign against extradition bill at G20 summit in Japan

Carrie Lam meets with the leaders of police unions at Government House. Secretary for Security John Lee and the Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo also attend. Photo: Handout

Andy Chan Ho-tin, center, a political activist from Hong Kong, speaks during a news conference on Friday, June 28, 2019, in Osaka, Japan. Osaka is hosting the G-20 Summit. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

28 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) welcomed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the welcoming ceremony of the G20 summit. Photo: -/YNA/dpa

Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Chief Secretary for Administration, speaks for the government's plan to transfer a prime strip of Central waterfront to People's Liberation Army (PLA) at a meeting at the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar. 26JUN19 SCMP / Nora Tam

Flag raising ceremony at the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai, to mark the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). 01JUL18 SCMP / David Wong

Hong Kong police, Hospital Authority agree to improve communications after tensions between staff over handling of anti-extradition bill protesters

Dr Chung Kin-lai (left) and Rebecca Lam speak to the press after their meeting on Friday. Photo: Nora Tam

(front row L-R): Anson Wong Yu-yat; Dr. Gabriel Choi Kin; Dr. Wong Yam-hong; Hung Tsz-yin, and members from medical and legal sector hold a press conference at the Chung Kiu Commercial Building in Mong Kok on accusations of police obstructing rescue work and disrespecting patients' privacy in wake of anti-extradition bill protests. 23JUN19 SCMP / K. Y. Cheng

Yan Chai Hospital located in Tsuen Wan. 20MAY16 SCMP/ Edward Wong

Tourist visits to Hong Kong surge by nearly a fifth to 6 million in May, driven by mainland Chinese holidays, but impact of extradition bill protests looms large

Visitors from mainland China, including millions on day trips, are behind the large year-on-year increase in tourist numbers to Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang

Mainland tourists at the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, Chek Lap Kok, on the Labour Day 'golden week' holiday. 01MAY19 SCMP / Felix Wong

Image of mainland tourists arriving Hong Kong's West Kowloon High Speed Rail Terminus via the High Speed Rail. 29SEP18 SCMP / Felix Wong

Hard hats, face masks and goggles: the essential wear for Hong Kong extradition bill protesters that is back in fashion five years after Occupy movement

Protesters wear their trademark yellow helmets as they gather outside police headquarters in Wan Chai on June 22. Photo: Edmond So

Helmets lie strewn across the road after the anti-extradition bill protest that occurred on June 12, in Admiralty on June 13, 2019.  13JUN19 SCMP / Antony DICKSON

Protesters clear the scene (Harcourt Road) where they remained on the streets overnight after a march from Causeway Bay to the Central Government Offices in Tamar, Admiralty, against the extradition bill and calling on city leader (chief executive) Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to resign. 17JUN19 SCMP / Sam Tsang

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Online platforms such as LIHKG and Telegram play a key role in helping protesters coordinate their moves and stay on message
Anonymity gives peace of mind, while coded language identifies ‘outsiders’


Online platforms such as LIHKG and Telegram play a key role in helping Hong Kong’s protesters coordinate their moves and stay on message. Anonymity gives peace of mind, while coded language identifies ‘outsiders’.


‘Hong Kong Reddit’: how leaderless extradition protests took a lead from social media

Online platforms such as LIHKG and Telegram play a key role in helping protesters coordinate their moves and stay on message Anonymity gives peace of mind, while coded language identifies ‘outsiders’

Online platforms such as LIHKG and Telegram play a key role in helping protesters coordinate their moves and stay on message

Anonymity gives peace of mind, while coded language identifies ‘outsiders’