Since then, 1 July marches have been organised every year to demand for democracy, universal suffrage, rights of minorities, protection of freedom of speech, and a variety of other political concerns.

[5] In 2020, despite a police ban citing gathering limits during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a dramatically altered legal situation due to the national security law that had come into force only the previous evening, marches with a total of tens of thousands of participants took place in several parts of the city.

[6][7] After the 1997 handover to 2002, marches were organised annually by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

By the end of 2002, the proposed anti-subversion legislation, as required by the Article 23 of the Basic Law, the constitutional document of the territory, sparked off heated debate and opposition.

Chu Yiu Ming (朱耀明) of the Baptist Church and Roman Catholics led by Bishop Joseph Zen organised a prayer gathering in Victoria Park before the march which was attended by some 40,000 people.

The march was originally scheduled to start at 2:30 pm at the football pitch in Victoria Park, arriving at the government headquarter building.

As the National People's Congress Standing Committee attempted to modify the Basic Law on 6 April 2004 to deny direct elections for the chief executive in 2007 and the Legislative Council in 2008.

On the other hand, pro-government groups lobbied the public to wear red (the colour traditionally worn for celebratory occasion in Chinese culture) to take part in a counter-protest they were holding.

[10] The organisers, Civil Human Rights Front, estimated that 530,000 took part in the demonstration, surpassing the number from the previous year, while the police set the figure at 200,000.

Yip Senior Lecturer of the Department of Statistics & Actuarial Science of the University of Hong Kong, suggested that the maximum number of participants could only have been around 192,000.

Further questions were raised regarding maximum working hours, minimum wage, increase of sexual violence, divide between the rich and poor.

Like previous years, counter-protest parade was held in the morning while the protest organised by the Civil Human Rights Front started at 15:00 the same day, marching from Victoria Park to Central Government Offices.

The organiser, Civil Human Rights Front, submitted an application for Notification of Public Procession to the Hong Kong Police (HKP) about twenty days before the march.

[12] Prior to the start of the protest, Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao had already left Hong Kong via the Shenzhen bay port.

[13] The police insisted that the organisers wrapped up the demonstration before 18:30 to facilitate the fireworks display that would take place that night over Victoria Harbour.

Civil Human Rights Front estimated the turn out to be 68,000 while the Hong Kong Police put the figure with those who left from Victoria Park between 14:30 to 16:30 at 20,000.

[16] Previously the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre at Hong Kong Victoria Park had a large turnout to commemorate the event.

Seven different events were expected to attract a total of 130,000 participants, as it was supposed to be the largest number of protests in a single day on Hong Kong island.

[16] chief executive Donald Tsang led senior government officials at the flag-raising ceremony at Wan Chai Golden Bauhinia Square.

Several hundred democratic party members faced verbal abuse throughout the march to the HK government headquarters for selling out to Beijing.

Party chairman Albert Ho publicly responded "Even if you replaced Donald Tsang with another chief, you still have to deal with the People's Liberation Army, which is another type of power.

Just two days before the protest, the government led by Stephen Lam tried to pass a bill to no longer allow by-elections, to block any more events similar to the Five Constituencies referendum.

[32] On 13 July People Power group led a three-day sit-in to protest against Stephen Lam, the blocking of by-elections and a number of issues.

[35] These protests coincided with the 15th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong attended by CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao and his swearing in of new chief executive CY Leung, who is alleged to be a closet member of the Chinese Communist Party,[36] and has conflicts of interests over his business interests and has had unauthorised building work at his home.

The Civil Human Rights Front, organiser of the annual march, said 430,000 people took part on Monday, compared to 400,000 last year.

The Hong Kong government earlier promised to residents that they will be able to vote for their new chief executive in the upcoming 2017 election, but it has been feared that the final process will favour candidates approved by Beijing.

This protest had one of the lowest turnout in recent years, due to it being held after the veto of the 2014–15 Hong Kong electoral reform.

[56] At around 9 pm local time, hundreds of protesters stormed the legislature after breaking through the glass walls and metal doors of the building.

[citation needed] The police started using tear gas to disperse protesters around the LegCo at 12:05 am, and reached the building 15 minutes later.

[64] The police responded by deploying water cannon at journalists and protesters and dispersed many tear gas and pepper balls.