The title is a misnomer. Perhaps intended to grab attention. At its peak about 2 million marched to protest the proposed extradition bill. HK has 7.4 million people. {p x and 4}
The bill was proposed by Carrie Lam after receiving emotional letters from the parents of a young woman murdered in Taiwan by her boyfriend. He had fled back to HK. As there was no extradition arrangement with Taiwan, he could not be sent back to Taiwan to face justice. Instead he was jailed 29 months in HK for using the dead lady ‘s credit card {p 5 and 23}.
Scientific Publishing, a publisher based in Singapore, has published in this book a selection of reports and essays on the protests, riots, and anarchy in HK by the venerable South China Morning Post. It is a useful anthology.
One may agree or disagree with these protesters. Interestingly, in Singapore initially they were supportive, but that evaporated when the protesters descended into violence and clashes with riot police. {p 388}
HK will face a long healing process. The bill has been hijacked by hawks who opposed China. HK to them is an innocent bystander that can be sacrificed at the altar. Reading this book, one wonders why the initial peaceful protesters turned violent. As was brilliantly explained in a seminal study on why ordinary Germans can exterminate thousands of Jews in one village alone, most people succumb to the pressures of a group setting and commit actions they would never do of their own volition. The book is Christopher R. Browning Ordinary Men – Revised Edition: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland