Hong Kong on Tuesday marks a year since pro-democracy protests erupted, as mass arrests, coronavirus bans on gatherings and a looming national security law keep a lid on any return to city-wide unrest.

Seven months of massive and often violent rallies kicked off on June 9 last year when as many as one million people took to the streets to oppose a bill allowing extraditions to mainland China.

As the government dug in, battles between police and protesters became routine, leaving the city's reputation for stability in tatters and swathes of the population in revolt against Beijing's rule.

Messaging groups used by protesters have called on people to hold flashmob gatherings in the evening, although locations will only be announced an hour ahead of time.

The tactic is a bid to thwart police, who now move swiftly against such gatherings to enforce anti-virus restrictions.

Student groups and unions have also announced plans to canvass members over possible strike action in coming days, but Hong Kong's labour movement has limited influence.

City leader Carrie Lam, an unpopular pro-Beijing appointee, was peppered with questions from reporters on Tuesday about the unrest under her tenure.

"Hong Kong cannot afford such chaos," she said, adding all sides needed to "learn lessons".

Residents needed "to prove that Hong Kong people are reasonable and sensible citizens of the People's Republic of China" if they want their freedoms and autonomy to continue, Lam added.

- 'Anti-virus software' -

Under a deal signed with Britain ahead of the 1997 handover, authoritarian China agreed to let Hong Kong keep certain freedoms and autonomy for 50 years.

Protests over the last decade have been fuelled by fears those freedoms are being prematurely curtailed, something Beijing denies.

Analysts say the space for Hong Kongers to voice dissent has rapidly diminished in the last year.

"I don't think the passion has subsided much, but the problem is that many actions are now not allowed in the current circumstances," Leung Kai-chi, an analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), told AFP.

"People are waiting for a chance, they of course want to come out again... but they will not do that carelessly," added Francis Lee, head of CUHK's journalism school.

Beyond a withdrawal of the extradition bill, the protest movement's core demands -- such as universal suffrage and an inquiry into police tactics -- have been rejected by the city's leadership and Beijing.

Instead, China has unveiled plans to impose a more sweeping law -- one that will bypass the city's legislature entirely -- banning subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign interference.

China says an anti-subversion law will only target "a small minority" and will restore business confidence.

International companies like HSBC and Standard Chartered, which are hugely reliant on access to mainland markets, have issued supportive statements in recent days.

In a speech on Monday, Zhang Xiaoming, the deputy head of Beijing's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, likened the law to "anti-virus software".

"Radical separatists have been mistaking the central government's restraint and forbearance for weakness and timidity," he said.

Opponents fear the law will bring mainland-style political oppression to the business hub.

Anti-subversion laws are routinely used on the mainland to stamp out dissent.

"First (Beijing) loses the hearts and minds of Hong Kong's people and then it seeks to force them to be loyal," said Kong Tsung-gan, an activist who has published three books on the protest movement.

"This is a long-term struggle, the Communist Party is upping the ante, and Hong Kong people will have to be willing to suffer and sacrifice much more than they have up to now to see their way through," Kong said.

Over the last year around 9,000 people have been arrested and more than 1,700 people charged, but by the time the deadly coronavirus hit the city in January, the protest movement was already on the back foot.

The virus has made any protest effectively illegal, with emergency laws banning gatherings of more than eight people even though local transmission has been virtually eradicated.

Still, protests have bubbled up again since the security law plans were announced -- including tens of thousands defying a ban on a June 4 gathering to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Hong Kong protests one year on: The medic
Hong Kong (AFP) June 9, 2020 - Nok quit his nursing job to join Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests full-time as a volunteer medic. A year on, he keeps his equipment on permanent standby, convinced his skills will be needed again in a city still seething with anger.

The 29-year-old, who asked just to use his first name, watched the first huge protest march on June 9 last year on television when he got back from work.

The protests were initially sparked by a plan to allow extraditions to authoritarian China's party-controlled courts.

There had been smaller gatherings in the months before, but the crowd size on June 9 was enormous, dubbed "the million march" by Hong Kongers.

Three days later, Nok was outside the city's legislature helping protesters struck by tear gas and rubber bullets as activists battled with police to halt the extradition bill.

The next protest, four days later, was dubbed "the two million march".

Soon Nok was part of an organised band of medics at the sidelines of the weekly protests that engulfed the city in what spiralled into an outpouring of popular rage and frustration at Beijing's rule and the city's police force.

Many injured protesters avoided going to hospital, fearing arrest if they did, so medics also coordinated treatment at underground clinics with doctors and surgeons sympathetic to the democracy movement.

As the weeks went by, Nok found it impossible to do his day job and attend the protests. So in August, he quit.

"I just didn't think I could manage to do both. When there is a protest out there, I can't just ignore it," he told AFP.

For the next few months he lived off savings and he generated some spare cash by making pro-democracy trinkets.

- History repeating? -

Mass arrests and anti-coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings have largely halted the protests this year.

In recent weeks, renewed clashes have broken out after Beijing announced plans to impose a sweeping national security law over the restless city and last week tens of thousands defied the government to mark the anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.

Nok has since restarted work as a carer, a job that gives him more flexible hours -- and pays better than nursing.

But he says he is ready to return to the streets at any time, keeping his equipment in a cupboard.

Inside is a yellow hi-vis jacket with the word "Medic" emblazoned on it, a helmet and respirator, a bag stuffed with gauze, bandages, antiseptic creams and the saline used to wash the eyes of those struck by pepper spray and tear gas.

"I'm a professional nurse and I need to give the injured appropriate treatment," he said as he checked supplies.

Walking through the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui, a shopping district that saw frequent clashes last year, Nok found it hard to work out what, if anything, had been achieved by the protests.

"Nothing has changed, but I can't tell whether this is good or not," he explained.

But with protests against a planned national security law bubbling up once more, he fears history is repeating itself with an unpopular leadership making a fresh bid tighten its grip on dissent.

Over the months, police have taken an increasingly aggressive line towards both the journalists and medics who wear yellow jackets to differentiate themselves from protesters. It is something that unnerves Nok.

"To be honest, I am quite nervous," he explained. "If you are not their friends, they see you as an enemy".

But he says many of his old medic friends are ready to take the risk.

"We feel fear, but we choose to face it instead of evading it," he said.

Hong Kong protests one year on: The frontliner
Hong Kong (AFP) June 9, 2020 - Ryan used to be on the front lines during Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests. But a year on he has left the streets, fearful of arrest, wracked with guilt over his departure and despondent for the city's future.

"I wanted to get away from the political environment," the 20-year-old bespectacled student told AFP, adding that he has not logged on to the encrypted messaging apps used by protesters for several months now.

When AFP first met Ryan last summer he was a self-declared "charge boy", one of the frontline protesters forming shield walls against riot police in the weekly battles that swept through a once stable finance hub chafing at Beijing's rule.

His radicalisation was swift.

Like many Hong Kongers, he joined the mass movement after witnessing police use rubber bullets and tear gas in early June against demonstrators outside the city's legislature who were trying to stop a widely loathed bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China's opaque, Communist Party-controlled courts.

Hundreds of thousands marched in record-breaking rallies that continued for seven straight months and often descended into clashes with police.

Ryan described his embrace of confrontational tactics in unapologetic terms, saying he was "burning with anger" against the police and felt years of peaceful rallies had achieve little in stopping Beijing's steady erosion of Hong Kong's freedoms.

During one confrontation, Ryan hobbled away from the streets after he was struck in the leg by a rubber bullet. But he kept coming back out, his parents unaware of what he was up to.

Months later the 20-year-old university freshman cuts a very different figure, saying he can "no longer be a frontline protester".

- Brush with the law -

In October, Ryan was arrested on a slew of charges including participating in an illegal assembly and assaulting police.

He alleges a group of police officers slapped and kicked him during his detention. Many other protesters have made similar claims but the police have rejected all accusations of abuse or excessive force.

The charges were eventually dropped after a series of court hearings.

But the experience rattled Ryan and he felt like a marked man.

"There's no way for me to have a catharsis... It only left me with a sense of loss. It also makes me want to give up on this movement," he explained, asking for just his first name to be used.

Over the last year about 9,000 people have been arrested for taking part in Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, with more than 1,700 charged, and the courts are now jammed with prosecutions.

Many of those going to jail are youngsters like Ryan, who now often sits in the public gallery.

"I want to show encouragement and support to those who have been arrested and those who have to go through court proceedings. Because I've been through it myself, I understand how you really need the support and care of others," he said.

- 'Fairy tale' -

During a recent visit to the city's legislature Ryan's eyes welled up as he looked at a building now surrounded in barriers after it was breached and trashed by protesters in early July.

Last week the partially elected legislature, which is weighted to deliver a pro-Beijing majority, passed a law banning insults to China's national anthem.

Beijing has also announced plans for a sweeping new national security law to be imposed on Hong Kong, bypassing the legislature entirely.

Ryan's backpack sported a key-chain with a popular protest slogan: "Meet again under the drum."

The drum is the circular chamber where the legislature sits and over the years pro-democracy protesters have held sit-ins outside.

But Ryan finds it hard to imagine a future where similar protests are allowed, especially as anti-coronavirus measures currently restrict more than eight people gathering in public.

"That's a fairy tale," he said. "Right now, it's a problem even if we just want to meet on the streets. Meeting under the drum is just too good to think about but it might become something that will never happen again."

Ryan knows some fellow protesters will judge him for leaving the movement and he struggles with guilt and doubt.

"I blame myself for selfishness and cowardice," he said. "I turned silent after being battered. I feel apologetic from my head to my toes. But I just couldn't do it."

Yet he also can envisage a time when he might hit the streets once more.

"You could say the temporary drop-out is to prepare for the future."

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