Reactions to the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests

[5] Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung said that the turnout rate in the April protest is not a key determining factor for the government to consider and added that fixing the loopholes in the existing extradition law was necessary.

While pro-Beijing lawmakers agreed and claimed it was the time for Hong Kong people to "move on", opposition called Lam "insincere" and questioned her reluctance to formally withdraw the bill using the appropriate term.

[25] Lam added that her cabinet would begin focusing on improving the city's economy and preparing measures to help the businesses in Hong Kong, while warning of an upcoming economic downturn.

[29] 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.

[31] On 4 September, Carrie Lam announced that she would formally withdraw the extradition bill, and introduce measures such as bringing new members to the Independent Police Complaints Council, engaging in dialogue at a community level and inviting academics to evaluate the deep-rooted problems of Hong Kong.

[61] Former government executives, 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.

[68] In late October 2019, CNN and the South China Morning Post reported on sideline supporters and moderates who say they have been driven away by the violence because the protesters spread chaos, trash the economy, and hurt their own cause.

[97] The meeting came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's trip to the PRC, where she said that the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong "must be guaranteed" and to whom Wong had written an open letter seeking her backing for the protests.

[138] In December 2019, Global Times reported on a mobile game named Fight the Traitors Together, where players can beat up Hong Kong protesters and activists including Joshua Wong and Nathan Law with various weapons such as baseball bats and flip-flops.

[159] On 2 September 2019, People's Daily denounced the Facebook posts of Garic Kwok, the director of Hong Kong mooncake brand Taipan Bread and Cake, for supporting the protests.

[171][173][174] On 22 August, Google stated it had disabled 210 YouTube channels involved in "coordinated influence operations" around the Hong Kong protests, "consistent with recent observations and actions related to China announced by Facebook and Twitter".

[180][181] In Bloomberg Opinion, Adam Minter wrote that "the vast majority of content tweeted by these accounts wasn't related to Hong Kong and – most important – failed to generate retweets, likes or responses".

[188][189] The intelligence agency was also linked to powerful denial of service attacks aimed at CloudFlare and Internet voting systems and websites that enabled a grassroots civic referendum.

"[192] An article published by the AFP on 30 July said that "Videos falsely claiming to show a Chinese military crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have flooded social media over the past week.

[193] On 30 July, Bloomberg News reported that a senior White House official had leaked information about a potential Chinese military buildup along the Hong Kong border.

The video shows heavily armed troops shooting at mock citizen actors and making arrests; there are also depictions of tanks, helicopters, rocket launchers, automatic weapons, and water cannons being deployed in urban areas.

"[202] On 16 November, approximately 50 unarmed PLA soldiers in T-shirts and shorts emerged from their barracks to clean up debris from violent clashes between protestors and police near Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

[208] The ruling Democratic Progressive Party later issued a statement on Facebook on 12 August strongly condemning the violent acts of Beijing and the Hong Kong government across the moral bottom line.

[211] Chinese Nationalist Chairman Wu Dunyi issued a statement, hoping that the Hong Kong Government and mainland China will establish a communication channel with the protesters as soon as possible, seek consensus, and let the dispute end peacefully.

"[220][221] French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called on Hong Kong authorities to renew talks with protesters to find a peaceful solution to the current crisis.

[242] Marko Djuric, vice president of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, accused the protests of being "hijacked by foreign forces to weaken China" & the "violence" of being "fascism" when criticising the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed unanimously by the U.S.

[258] According to CNN and Financial Times reports, in June, President Donald Trump promised Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping that the US would remain quiet on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong while trade talks continued.

Senators have expressed disapproval of corporate decisions related to the protests, including Apple's removal of the HKmap.live application from the App Store as well as video game developer and publisher Blizzard's suspension of an esports athlete from competing in events.

[294] Over the 16–18 August weekend, solidarity pro-democracy protests were held in London, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Taipei, Berlin, Paris, Boston, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto.

[311] On 11 June, due to the events in Hong Kong, the Macau SAR Government said it will develop a wait-and-see approach, in regards to making their own extradition law with Mainland China.

[321][322] An August 2019 article in the Washington Post reported that mainland Chinese state-run media portrayed the protests as extremely violent demonstrations, plotted by "foreign hostile forces [zh]" including United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the CIA.

[331][332] The cover story of the Fall 2019 edition of Nieman Reports characterised the protests as a fight for a free press, noting the ways in which the city's independent news outlets adapted to an increasingly hostile media environment.

"[335][336][337][338] In April 2020, global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders released the 2020 edition of the World Press Freedom Index, which showed Hong Kong dropping seven places from 73rd in 2019 to 80th because of what the organization said was the city's its treatment of journalists during the demonstrations.

[347][348] A September 2019 article from Asia Times reported that international media outside of China have been overwhelmingly sympathetic to the movement to the point of strengthening the Chinese government's desire to control Hong Kong.

She added that her newsroom typically compiles news from different sources, including those at opposing ends of the political spectrum (like Apple Daily and Wen Wei Po), to let the readers make their own judgement.