[30][31] The Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 was first proposed by the government of Hong Kong in February 2019 in response to the 2018 murder of Poon Hiu-wing by her boyfriend Chan Tong-kai in Taiwan, which the two Hongkongers were visiting as tourists.

[36][37] Xi Jinping's accession to General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the top position of paramount leader in 2012 marked a more hardline authoritarian approach, most notably with the construction of Xinjiang internment camps.

[79] While a standoff between the protesters and the police occurred on Hong Kong Island,[80] groups of white-clad individuals, suspected to be triad members,[81][82][83] appeared and indiscriminately attacked people inside Yuen Long station.

[108][109] Carrie Lam invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to impose a law to ban wearing face masks in public gatherings, attempting to curb the ongoing protests on 4 October.

[120][failed verification] On 14 November, an elderly man named Luo Changqing died from a head injury which he had sustained the previous day during a confrontation between two groups of anti-government protesters and residents in Sheung Shui.

[121][122] For the first time, during a standoff on 11 November, police shot numerous rounds of tear gas, sponge grenades and rubber bullets into the campuses of universities, while protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs in response.

[131][132] The unprecedented electoral success of the pro-democracy voters, the mass arrests during the PolyU siege, and faster response by police contributed to a decrease in the intensity and frequency of the protests in December 2019 and January 2020.

[134][135] The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mainland China and subsequent escalation of the COVID-19 crisis in February and March 2020 caused the number of large-scale rallies to dwindle further because of fears that they might facilitate the spread of the virus.

[157] The British Home Office announced that starting from early 2021, current and former holders of the BN(O) passport in Hong Kong can resettle in the UK along with their dependents for five years before they become eligible to apply for permanent citizenship.

Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers were among the first to leave the territory; the first wave of emigres also included young professionals, as well as families whose parents wanted to have their children be schooled with emphasis on independent critical thinking.

[179] Schools were shrinking as parents feared "brainwashing" "patriotic" education be implemented,[180] and tens of thousands applied for British National (Overseas) visas after the UK government unveiled a new immigration path for passport holders.

During a pro-police rally on 30 June, their supporters began directing profanities at their opposition counterparts and destroyed their Lennon Wall and the memorial for Marco Leung, leading to intense confrontations between the two camps.

[322] Several police operations, in particular in Prince Edward station where the Special Tactical Squad (STS) assaulted commuters on a train, were thought by protesters and pro-democrats to have disregarded public safety.

[333] The siege of PolyU, which was described as a "humanitarian crisis" by democrats and medics,[334][335] prompted the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres to intervene as the wounded protesters trapped inside ran out of supplies and lacked first-aid care.

[398][399][102] Despite calls from both local[400] and international opinion leaders, Carrie Lam and both police commissioners Stephen Lo and his successor from 19 November 2019,[363] Chris Tang rejected the formation of an independent committee.

[409] Many of Hong Kong's media outlets are owned by local tycoons who have significant business ties in the mainland, so many of them adopt self-censorship at some level and have mostly maintained a conservative editorial line in their coverage of the protests.

[411] Journalists from South China Morning Post, which was acquired by the Chinese Alibaba Group in 2016, had their news pieces significantly altered by senior editors to include a pro-government viewpoint before they were published.

[420] RTHK journalist Nabela Qoser, known for her blunt questioning of government officials at press conferences, was subjected to racist abuse online by pro-Beijing groups, prompting a statement of "grave concern" from the Equal Opportunities Commission.

[471] On 2 September, Reuters received a leaked audio recording in which Carrie Lam admitted that she had "very limited" room to manoeuvre between the Central People's Government and Hong Kong, and that she would quit, if she had a choice.

[473] Lam's behaviour on this and later occasions strengthened the perception among a broad part of the protesters and their supporters that she was not able to make any crucial decision without instructions from the Beijing government, effectively serving as its puppet.

[475] The judiciary was also scrutinised after judge Kwok Wai-kin dedicated much of his sentencing statement to comment on the negative impacts of the protests and to expressing sympathy toward a stabber who attacked three people in September 2019 near a Lennon Wall.

[517] Symptoms of PTSD were found not only to afflict protesters, but also those watching events unfold on the news, living in affected areas, or working in jobs that are related to the movement (nurses, doctors, reporters, police, and street cleaners).

[537][538] On 4 September 2019, Lam announced that she would formally withdraw the extradition bill, as well as introduce measures such as adding new members to the IPCC, engage in dialogue at the community level, and invite academics to join an "independent review committee" – with no investigative powers – to evaluate Hong Kong's deep-rooted problems.

[544][532] On 5 October 2019, after what Lam referred to as "extreme violence" had taken place, an emergency law from the colonial era was enacted to ban face masks in Hong Kong—without declaring a state of emergency—which sparked criticism from various human rights organisations.

[568] Former government officials, including Anson Chan, the former Chief Secretary for Administration, issued several open letters to Carrie Lam, urging her to respond to the five core demands raised by protesters.

[569] In August, 17 members from the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong and the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce released statements condemning the escalating protests because of the instability they had brought to the city's economy and business community, as well as the negative effects on society as a whole.

[571][572] On 30 October, Abraham Shek, a lawmaker representing the Real Estate and Construction constituency, supported the formation of an independent commission and said that the problem could not be resolved by only addressing the severe housing shortage.

[573] Tycoon Li Ka-shing took out a two-page advertisement in newspapers, urging people to "stop anger and violence in the name of love", and quoting a Chinese poem: "The melon of Huangtai cannot bear the picking again".

[636] Christina Lai from Academia Sinica concurred that the situation in Hong Kong created a sense of "urgency" for Taiwanese voters, as China's hardline reaction implied that they would use the same strategy to undermine Taiwan's autonomy in the future.

[637] In the United States, the House of Representatives, with one dissenting vote, and the Senate unanimously passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in light of the extradition bill and protests.