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SCMP Reporter

July 1, 1997

Assistant Police Commissioner Dick Lee Ming-kwai  orders Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to be played to drown protesters' chants of 'Down with Li Peng' during the handover ceremony just after midnight.

November 1997

The low fence

around the Central Government Offices is replaced with high metal grilles. In 2002, officials request that would-be protesters at the main entrance submit applications in writing two working days in advance

July 2000

University of Hong Kong pollster Robert Chung Ting-yiu  writes in the South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Economic Journal that chief executive Tung Chee-hwa pressured him to cease surveys of his popularity and the government's credibility more than once in 1999 'via a special channel' - later revealed to be then  HKU vice-chancellor Cheng Yiu-chung, contacted by the chief executive's senior special assistant Andrew Lo Cheung-on

September 2002

A three-month consultation begins of Article 23 legislation targeting treason, secession, subversion and sedition. It immediately causes controversy among a public already deeply dissatisfied towards the government and security chief Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee

July 2003

Half a million Hongkongers turn out to protest, primarily against Article 23 legislation. Tung Chee-hwa later decides to defer the second reading of the law,  after executive councillor James Tien Pei-chun's resignation

February 2007

An inquiry is launched after Hong Kong Institute of Education academic vice-president Bernard Luk Hung-kay writes on the school intranet accusing former permanent secretary for education and manpower Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun of meddling in academic affairs by calling for the institute to sack academics critical of education policy

March 2007

Six activists, including lawmaker 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung and Tsang Kin-shing, appear at Eastern Court on charges of making unlicensed radio transmissions  via the Citizens Radio between August and October last year. The six face 14 charges.  The hearing has been adjourned to July 31

March 2007

The Court of Final Appeal rejects a government request to hear an appeal into the quashing of the convictions of Leung Kwok-hung and four other activists, found guilty in Eastern Court in March last year  of obstructing a public place.  The magistrate  said the defendants 'hijacked' the eastern harbour tunnel on April 29, 2005, halting traffic for 21 minutes



They fought the law: key battlegrounds over the past decade