Protesters win

last updated 8 January 2015

Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s chief executive scrapped a deeply unpopular security law this week, a rare example of the Chinese government deferring to public opinion. Half a million people, nearly one-tenth of the province’s population, marched against the legislation this summer, in China’s biggest protest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square rallies. Critics said the bill would have vastly increased police powers and taken away many of the basic freedoms that Hong Kong residents have enjoyed since the island was a British colony. Tung Chee-Hwa, the Beijing-appointed governor of Hong Kong, said he would reintroduce the legislation next year after he’s had time to explain it better to the public.