At 7 p.m. on June 14, the Korean folk song "March for the Beloved" rang out at Chater Garden in Hong Kong. This is a song widely known as a symbol of the May 18 Gwangju Democracy Movement and has long been with the history of Korean protests. What would be Hong Kong's message to express through an unfamiliar song from a foreign country?

 Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation Bill 2019 was proposed to establish a system to transfer fugitives to Mainland China, Taiwan, and Macau, which are excluded in the existing law. Initially, the bill was pushed for a murder case in Taiwan on Feb.2 2018. Hong Kong resident Chan Tong-kai killed his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan. He returned to Hong Kong and admitted the murder. However, Hong Kong police were unable to charge him for murder or extradite him to Taiwan because Hong Kong law prohibits the punishment of murder in other countries under the British style of territorial principle. In response, the Hong Kong government drew up a revision to the law in early 2019 to deal with the case, requiring suspects to be summoned not only in Taiwan but also in Mainland China and Macau.

 However, the introduction of the bill caused people’s concern and criticism because China can abuse it to repatriate human rights activists and journalists to the mainland. In fact, five staff members of Causeway Bay Books which had been publishing and selling banned books dealing with political corruption in China went missing in 2015. The whole story was revealed in 2017 when one of them who went missing at the time revealed that they had been kidnapped and detained in Mainland China. From this concern, hundreds of thousands of people flooded out to the streets.

 Hong Kong protests first began on March 31, 2019, and intensified ahead of the second reading of the extradition law, originally scheduled for June 12. The protest developed into a large-scale on June 9, with the participation of an estimated 1.03 million people. Also, on June 12, citizens gathered around the Legislative Council Complex, where the bill was scheduled to be passed, to stall the bill’s second reading. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government labeled them as a riot and used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to crack down on the protests. More than 80 people were injured in the process. 

 Still, as the protests did not subside, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced an indefinite suspension of the bill on June 15. Nevertheless, the protesters again called for a complete withdrawal and began to clamor the resignation of Carrie Lam. In particular, two million people took to the street on June 16, breaking the record of the largest protest in Hong Kong. That day, Carrie Lam issued an apology but did not accept the demand for a complete withdrawal of the bill and her resignation. This only incited demonstrations, and some protesters entered the city’s legislature and occupied the assembly hall on July 1, at the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

 Eventually, Carrie Lam declared "the bill is dead," on July 9. However, Lokman Tsui who teaches journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said, “'Officially dead’ is not a legal or political term. Therefore, it is unclear whether the bill is withdrawn.” The protesters also claimed that the declaration of the death of the bill is unreliable. "There are still lingering doubts about the government's sincerity or worries whether the government will restart the process in the Legislative Council," Lam told reporters. "So I reiterate here, there is no such plan," she added, but still didn't officially mention the word "withdraw."

 Meanwhile, demonstrators took over Hong Kong International Airport from Aug. 12. Their anger was due to police brutality that hit a female protester with police bean bag round, causing blindness on the right eye. A total of 979 flights were suspended for two days by this event. After the overnight siege, Hong Kong police said they arrested five protesters on charges of illegal rallies, assaulting police officers and possessing weapons.

 With ongoing protests, Hong Kong protesters' demands rose from "opposing the extradition law" to five. The Civil Human Rights Front(CHRF), the leading group in the protests, has called for five major demands: the abolition of the extradition law, the withdrawal of the "riot" description used about the protests, amnesty for all arrested protesters, an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality, and universal suffrage for the chief executive and Legislative Council. 

 At last, on Sep. 4, Carrie Lam officially announced the withdrawal of the extradition law. However, Ram made it clear that she would not release protesters and would take stern action against violent protests, refusing to accept the other four demands. In response, the protesters expressed their position that they would continue the fight until all the other four demands are met. 

 It is widely believed that the ongoing large-scale protests have sparked because of growing discontent over China's increasing intervention in domestic affairs, threatening Hong Kong's freedom and democratic system. The protests, which began with peaceful rallies, have escalated to the point where even foreign journalists are involved in violence. About 2,400 people were arrested by police during the 18th consecutive week of rallies, including 18-year-old and 14-year-old youths who were shot with live ammunition.

 Joshua Wong, secretary-general of pro-democracy party ‘Demosistō’, said “63-year-old guy and the 10-year-old boy are being arrested in Hong Kong for participating in rallies,” and he asked South Koreans for solidarity. Don’t you think the world's continuous interest is needed for a humanitarian resolution of Hong Kong protests?