Why Hong Kong Is Protesting (and May Do So Again)

As China seeks to assert greater control over Hong Kong, the city’s 7.5 million people regularly display a penchant for protest. Recent demonstrations forced the local government to suspend consideration of a bill that would have allowed extraditions to the mainland for the first time. Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a visit to Hong Kong in 2017, warned that challenges to Beijing’s rule wouldn’t be tolerated. But with activists demanding protection for personal freedoms in the former British colony, the extradition law is just one of several potential flash points.

Yes, but it’s a semi-autonomous region. The city was an outpost of the British Empire for 156 years, during which time it developed into a global business hub. In a 1984 joint declaration, the British agreed to give the city back in 1997 -- at the end of a 99-year lease on much of the land -- and China promised to allow a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years, including guarantees of free speech, capitalist markets and English common law under a “one country, two systems” arrangement.