Club Lunch Panel – The Hong Kong Protests: What Happened and What’s Next

In the past month, Hong Kong has witnessed enormous displays of public protests the likes of which have not been seen here in years. Anger over the Hong Kong government’s proposed extradition bill prompted more than a million people to take to the streets in successive weeks, according to organizers’ estimates. On July 1, a huge peaceful protest turned to vandalism as a small group forced their way into the Legislative Council headquarters. A panel of experts will look at the causes behind these mass demonstrations, why they played out as they did, the police and government response, the role of the media in covering the events and what might happen next.

Panelists: Antony Dapiran is a Hong Kong-based lawyer and writer, and the author of “City of Protest: A Recent History of Dissent in Hong Kong.” He has written and presented extensively on China and Hong Kong politics, business and culture, and has written for various outlets on the Hong Kong protests. A contributing editor of ArtAsiaPacific magazine, his writing has also appeared in The Guardian, Bloomberg Opinion, New Statesman, CNN Online, the Australian Financial Review and China File, among others. A fluent Mandarin speaker, Antony has resided between Hong Kong and Beijing for more than 20 years.

Mary Hui is a reporter for Quartz based in Hong Kong, where she covers Asia business and geopolitics. She has been covering the protests in Hong Kong. She previously was a freelance journalist, writing for outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Quartz, Citylab and South China Morning Post. Prior to that she was an intern at The Washington Post.

Bonnie Leung Wing-Man is vice convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, an organization involved in the Hong Kong protests. She has been in politics since 2008, starting as a student intern in Civic Party. Since then she had been political assistant to former legislator Alan Leong S.C. until 2016 when she was elected as District Councillor (Eastern District). Bonnie decided to participate more in social movements, inspired by the Umbrella Movement in 2014. In 2017 and 2018, she was elected as vice convenor of Civil Human Rights Front.