Timeline of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests (October 2019)
October events of the 2019–2020 pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In October 2019, the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests saw a further escalation of violence. It became evident that the protests were unlikely to end soon, and that they posed the biggest popular challenge to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping since his ascension to CCP general secretary in 2012.[1] To bring the situation under control, Chief Executive Carrie Lam invoked colonial-era powers to impose an anti-mask law, aimed at preventing protesters from hiding their identity. Observers considered the law, which came into force on 4 October, as a precedent for possible wider use of emergency powers at the expense of citizens' freedoms and in addition democratic rights, as they even saw the possibility of the upcoming District Council elections being cancelled based on the emergency law.[2] The mask ban did, however, not achieve the desired effect, but rather proved a further focal point of protests. In November, the High Court ruled the mask ban to be unconstitutional, although in April 2020, an Appeal Court ruled that it was constitutional in the case of unlawful assemblies.[3]
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The month began with major protests in several parts of the city on occasion of the Chinese National Day. On that day, for the first time in the protests, a protester was shot by police; he was critically injured in the torso, but survived. Police defended this use of potentially lethal force against accusations that it had been disproportionate. Another act of violence that stood out was the slashing of a police officer on 13 October. On 6 October, a taxi driver caused serious leg injuries to a woman when he drove into a crowd of protesters, an act which was seen by protesters as deliberate. On the same day, there was a first confrontation of protesters with the Chinese People's Liberation Army when protesters targeted their Kowloon Tong barracks with laser lights and were shown warnings from inside in response.