A new strain of resistance? How the coronavirus crisis is changing Hong Kong’s protest movement
- Hard-core activists back off but contagion helping to maintain momentum of city’s anti-government movement
- Mass strikes threat as new unions emerge ready to wreak havoc during this crisis, or the next
After more than eight months of anti-government street marches, violence and vandalism, with riot police responding by firing tear gas and other crowd-dispersal weapons, the health crisis led to protests being called off.
New police tactics since the new year, with officers intervening earlier at demonstrations to end violence and arrest protesters, also had the effect of keeping protesters away.
But declining crowd sizes at protests were no indication that the social unrest was over, said Eric Lai Yan-ho, deputy convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front that organised seven mass rallies between last June and January 1 this year, including four which it said drew more than a million participants.
“Street protests are just a part of the movement,” he said.
The arrival of the coronavirus crisis provided the anti-government camp with an opportunity to revitalise its resistance, offering a glimpse of the shape of protests to come.