Six Months of Hong Kong Protests. How Did We Get Here?

Nearly six months of pro-democracy protests have rocked Hong Kong, with the police arresting more than 4,000 people. In one of the worst days of clashes on Tuesday, the police fired more than 1,500 rounds of tear gas in a single day.

The protests started as peaceful marches, rallies against an unpopular extradition bill. Then came dozens of rounds of tear gas and a government that refused to back down. In the moments that followed, the city has been roiled by protests and violent clashes, as the demonstrations morphed into a broader call about political reforms and police accountability.

These are the critical moments that have defined the Hong Kong protests:

Though there had already been two protests against a proposed law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, the scale of popular discontent became clear on June 9. That day, more than a million — or nearly one in seven Hong Kong residents — took to the streets, according to protest organizers.

Thousands of people surrounded Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. The legislature, where pro-Beijing lawmakers have a majority, was expected to debate the bill.

Protesters threw bricks, bottles and umbrellas at police officers, leading to a police response that some demonstrators called excessive. The use of pepper spray, batons and particularly tear gas infuriated many Hong Kong residents.

The clashes began a sharp escalation in violence, and the lawmakers postponed debate on the bill.

Angered by the police response, as many as two million people marched in defiance of the government, according to organizers’ estimates.

In addition to pushing to have the bill withdrawn, protesters added a new demand: an independent investigation into the use of force by the police.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched peacefully on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty. But a smaller group of several hundred demonstrators stormed the Legislative Council, smashing windows and vandalizing the building.

Some defaced portraits, spray-painted slogans and destroyed surveillance cameras. In graffiti, someone wrote, “It was the government who taught us that peaceful protest is useless.”

By now, the protesters had more demands, including universal suffrage; amnesty for demonstrators who had been arrested; and retracting officials’ characterization of the June 12 protest as a “riot.”

As clashes between protesters and the police grew more frequent, protests began to spread to neighborhoods far from the government’s downtown offices.

On July 14, after a peaceful march and a tense standoff with the police in the Sha Tin area, riot police officers charged a shopping mall where protesters were gathered, catching casual shoppers and diners in the fray. The images of peaceful shoppers frantically running from the police led to hundreds of people protesting near the mall in the following days.

Demonstrators returning from a night of protesting to their homes in the Yuen Long neighborhood were attacked at a train station by dozens of men wearing masks and white shirts. Some of the attackers were later identified as members of organized crime groups. The police were slow to respond to the scene and made no arrests that night, fueling speculation that they were cooperating with criminal gangs.

Frustrated by the government’s inaction, protesters mounted a new challenge by trying to bring the city to a halt. They staged a general strike, disrupting more than 200 flights, occupying shopping malls and blocking roads and rail lines in seven districts.

The police cracked down hard, firing 800 rounds of tear gas and arresting scores of people.

The protesters have devised savvy ways to use everyday objects in their clashes with the police: suitcases as shields, traffic cones to contain tear gas canisters and laser pointers to harass officers.

On Aug. 6, the police, who said the laser pointers were “offensive weapons,” arrested Keith Fong, the president of the Hong Kong Baptist University student union, for possessing several of the devices. He was later released without being charged.

The arrest drew hundreds of protesters the next night to a police station in the Sham Shui Po neighborhood to demand his release, and the police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds. The next day protesters put on a laser show during a demonstration near the Hong Kong Space Museum.

A day of protests across the city ended with a woman being struck in the eye by a projectile, believed to have been fired by the police. The police asserted that there was no evidence linking officers to the woman’s injury, and later announced that they had launched a formal inquiry. The woman became a symbol of the protests, and many demonstrators wore eye patches in her honor.

Also that night, the police fired tear gas toward protesters inside a subway station, violating safety guidelines.

Protesters raised the stakes again, shutting down air traffic with a dayslong demonstration at Hong Kong’s airport, one of the world’s busiest.

Some protesters tied up and beat two men from mainland China. They suspected one of being a security officer, and the other turned out to be a reporter for a state-run Chinese newspaper. Protesters later apologized. The Chinese authorities denounced the violence as “close to terrorism.”

As many as 1.7 million protesters marched peacefully through Hong Kong’s city center, according to organizers, in a sign of the movement’s sustained strength.

It marked a period of quiet, after the havoc at the airport and criticism of the protesters’ behavior there. The weekend passed without a single tear gas canister being fired.

Chaos returned on the fifth anniversary of China’s 2014 proposal to limit direct elections in Hong Kong. Demonstrators set fires to barricades and brawled with the police. Some threw bricks and firebombs at officers. As government helicopters flew overhead, the police fired tear gas and pepper spray at protesters and blasted them with water cannons loaded with blue dye, to mark them for later arrest.

Mrs. Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, announced that the government would formally withdraw the extradition bill, giving in to one of the protesters’ major demands. But it was far from clear that it would be enough to quell the movement, or to satisfy Hong Kongers who have called for more ambitious change. The next weekend, the protests continued.

Written and composed anonymously, then modified in online forums used by protesters, “Glory to Hong Kong” was rapidly adopted as an anthem of the pro-democracy movement, replacing the previously popular “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” and “Do You Hear the People Sing,” which was heard often during the 2014 Occupy protests.

In a slickly produced video for the new song, an orchestra and choir appear in typical protest outfits — black shirts, helmets, goggles and gas masks.

The protests in Hong Kong escalated after the police shot a protester for the first time with a live round on the same day that China was celebrating 70 years of Communist Party rule.

That day, protesters clashed with riot police officers in at least nine districts, turning Hong Kong into a tear gas-engulfed battlefield.

The government invoked a rarely used emergency-powers law to enforce a ban on wearing face masks in public. The masks were commonly worn because protesters found they provided anonymity and some protection from tear gas. The announcement provoked a strong reaction and led to clashes.

The day the ban was announced, residents took to the streets across the city to voice their dissent. Later that month, on Halloween, thousands defied the ban and took to the streets covering their faces in costumes. On Nov. 5, many donned Guy Fawkes masks at protests.

Chow Tsz-lok, a 22-year-old student, died several days after falling from a parking garage near where the police clashed with protesters. Thousands of people took part in memorial events and protests across the city that Friday. The following Monday, violent clashes paralyzed the city. A police officer shot a protester at point-blank range. Across the city, a man was set on fire after an argument with protesters.

Citywide protests erupted after riot police stormed the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, one of the city’s largest. Across the territory, protesters abandoned their previous strategy of spontaneous demonstrations and began occupying several university campuses. At the campus of the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, the police fired tear gas and water cannons, as protesters bunkered inside and slung arrows, gasoline bombs and bricks at the police.