Months of Hong Kong protests started with a murder. Will suspected killer’s return to Taiwan end it?

Poon Hiu-wing never returned home from her trip to Taiwan with her boyfriend Chan Tong-kai in February 2018

Chief Executive Carrie Lam tried to have him sent back to Taiwan by introducing an extradition bill, but her plan instead gave rise to mass protests and violent clashes

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Anti-government protesters throw tear gas canisters back at police in Admiralty, central Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 12:51pm, 23 Oct 2019Updated: 10:14am, 24 Oct 2019

Be it the butterfly effect or a black swan event, Hong Kong’s current social unrest started with what should have been one couple’s romantic getaway to Taiwan for Valentine’s Day last year.

It was a time when mass protests, violent clashes, tear gas, petrol bombs and the trashing of metro stations and businesses were beyond the thoughts of the city’s 7.4 million residents.

Poon Hiu-wing, 20, never returned home from that trip to Taiwan. She was killed during the getaway allegedly by her boyfriend Chan Tong-kai, who was 19 years old.

After spending 19 months in custody on money-laundering charges, Chan was on Wednesday released from jail into a very different Hong Kong society – one that has grown accustomed to violent clashes between radical protesters and police, vandalism and widespread dissent.

Murder suspect Chan Tong-kai released from prison in Clear Water Bay. Photo: Winson Wong

Over the past four months, Hong Kong’s streets have been turned into tear gas-filled battlefields, with groups of protesters regularly blocking major roads, hurling petrol bombs at police and into MTR stations, vandalising businesses they dislike and beating people who disagree with their ideas. The shocking scenes have been compared to the mayhem of the 1960s riots.

“I have disgraced all Hong Kong people,” Chan, now 20, was quoted as saying in a recent interview with Chinese-language weekly magazine Eastweek. “I hope Hong Kong can return to peace as soon as possible. I was so impulsive and did the wrong thing and have regretted it much.”