The Anti-Hong Kong Express Rail Link movement was a social movement and period of civil discontent in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

between mid-2009 and early 2010. Select groups of

Hong Kong residents The Hong Kong Basic Law classifies residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region () as either permanent residents or non-permanent residents. Hong Kong residents have rights under the Basic Law including freedom of speech, freedom ...

protested at the proposed Hong Kong section of the

Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link The Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL), also known as the Guangshengang XRL, is a high-speed railway line that connects Guangzhou and Hong Kong (Kowloon) via Shenzhen. Three types of rolling stock that operate along the X ...

(abbreviated "XRL"), a

high-speed railway High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...

that would link Hong Kong with mainland China's growing high-speed rail network.

Background

Segments of the general public and various interest groups opposed to certain aspects of the Hong Kong section of the project mobilised through

petitions A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to an officia ...

, marches, hunger-strikes, and rallies to express their discontent at the government's insistence on pushing through the project. They cited cost,

noise pollution Noise pollution, or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise or sound with potential harmful effects on humans and animals. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport and propagation systems.Senate Publi ...

, customs and border control complications, and pre-existing rail links as main reasons for the opposition. Pan-democracy

legislators A legislator, or lawmaker, is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people, but they can be appointed, or hereditary. Legislatures may be supra-natio ...

questioned the project rationale within the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, colloquially known as LegCo, is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under People's Republic of China, China's "one country, two systems" c ...

(LegCo), while civil groups held vigils outside LegCo during the debate. The January protest was also called the "siege of Legco" by local media. Ultimately, the movement was unsuccessful in impeding the government's plans to build the railway.

Protest timeline

November 2009

On 29 November 2009, a demonstration of more than 1,000 people protesting against the construction of the Express Rail link gained the attention of the local media when a group of 100 people engaged in a sit-in protest in front of the government headquarters in Central.Angry rail-link protesters clash with police
, ''The Standard'', 30 November 2009

December 2009

On 18 December 2009, the funding application was debated in the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council. A demonstration of an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 people was staged around the Legislative Council Building. The debate was put on hold and the funding was not yet finalised.Opponents of high-speed rail link claim victory as pan-democrats delay funding, ''South China Morning Post'', 19 December 2009

January 2010

Promotion activity of HK 80 Night Anti-Express Rail Link 01

A group performed a "prostrating walk" (苦行) imitating Tibetan pilgrims, dubbing it the "Prostrating Walk of the Five Districts", in which participants kneel down and touch the ground with their heads every 26 steps (to symbolise the length of the rail link), from 5 to 8 January. Protesters also walked around the LegCo building in a similar fashion during the protest from 15 to 16 January. A series of disputes and arguments were held in and out of the HK legislative council chamber for four weeks. Lawmakers that were for or against the line traded insults during debate that lasted 25 hours straight. On 15 January, hundreds of young protesters swarmed the

government house Government House is the name of many of the official residences of governors-general, governors and lieutenant-governors in the Commonwealth and British Overseas Territories. The name is also used in some other countries. Government Houses in th ...

gates.''South China Morning Post'',
Rail cash approved amid protests
, Retrieved on 16 January 2010. Anti-Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong rail oppositions Jan 2010 protest 06

Anti-Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong rail oppositions Jan 2010 protest 06

On the morning of 16 January, protests carried on, along with the debates inside the LegCo building. About 10,000 people showed up at the peak according to organizers.

Police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

gave the figure of 1,700.South China Morning Post.
SCMP
" ''Hard core came prepared for trouble.'' Retrieved on 16 January 2010. About 1,200 police officers were involved.
Mingpao.com, Retrieved on 16 January 2010. Just before the approval of the budget at around 18:00, an initial group of people attempted to storm the Legislative Council Building, but was blocked by the police. Scuffles broke out as the police used

pepper spray Pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum spray, OC spray, capsaicin spray, mace, or capsicum spray is a Tear gas, lachrymator (tear gas) product containing as its active ingredient the chemical compound capsaicin, which irritates the eyes with burning ...

on the citizens while they covered their face with sheets of

plastic wrap Plastic wrap, cling film, Saran wrap, cling wrap, Glad wrap or food wrap is a thin plastic film typically used for sealing food items in containers to keep them fresh over a longer period of time. Plastic wrap, typically sold on rolls in boxe ...

. Armed with mobile devices and communicating via

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, protesters quickly moved into 6 separating strategic positions on the streets around the LegCo building, blocking all the exits.

Eva Cheng Eva Cheng, GBS (; born 31 May 1960, Hong Kong) was the Secretary for Transport and Housing and the chairman of the Hong Kong Housing Authority Blogger Martin Oei drew a detailed strategic map showing the distribution of police and protesters, and gave an estimation of about 1700 protesters in that night. The crowd that surrounded the building promised Eva Cheng her safety if she would only come out to talk. She did not. The

pro-Beijing The pro-Beijing camp, pro-establishment camp or pro-China camp is a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Beijing central government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) towards Hong Kong. The term " ...

DAB had to be escorted out of the building while the crowd chanted "shame". Five police officers were injured.

February 2010

On 15 February 2010, and shadowing the tradition of Lau Wong Fat of the

Heung Yee Kuk The Heung Yee Kuk, officially the Heung Yee Kuk N.T., is a statutory advisory body representing establishment interests in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The council is a powerful organisation comprising heads of rural committees which repre ...

, about 20 post-80s generation anti-rail representatives joined the annual HK kau cim tradition at

Che Kung temple Che Kung Miu ( zh, first=t, t=車公廟, s=车公庙, p=Chēgōng Miào, j=ce1 gung1 miu6), also called Che Kung Temple, are temples dedicated to the Chinese deity Che Kung, who was a general during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279 ...

Sha Tin Sha Tin, also spelt Shatin, is a neighbourhood along Shing Mun River in the eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Sha Tin District. Sha Tin is one of the neighbourhoods of the Sha Tin New Town project. The new ...

to draw three divination sticks for the year of the Tiger. They said the fortune of the city should not depend on unelected, unrepresentative business/political personalities leaders. Two 'mid' sticks were drawn with No. 89 and No. 24, along with one 'misfortune' stick. The misfortune stick No. 74 was interpreted as 凡事待遲 (roughly translated as "Everything should be carried out later").

Reasons for opposition

The opposition was initiated by media activists already active in high key campaigns such as the struggle for the preservation of the Star Ferry Pier in Edinburgh Place in 2006 and

Queen's Pier Queen's Pier, named after Queen Victoria, was a public pier in front of City Hall in Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong. For three generations it served not only as a public pier in day-to-day use but also as a major ceremonial arrival and ...

in 2007, at the outset, only focused on saving Choi Yuen Tsuen village, which was built by residents over four decades. Yet, while activists worked on ways to solve the problem, they found many inconsistencies with the government's plan and decided to oppose the rail link as a whole. The rail link was regarded as sacrificing the interests of the common people to a small minority of economic elites. Besides possible damage to the environment during its construction and operation, the rail link would cost

HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of Hong Kong. It is divided into 100 cents. Historically, it was also divided into 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong an ...

69.9 billion (US$9 billion), while the projected returns over 50 years would only be $80 billion. A village along the track, Choi Yuen Tsuen, home to about 500 people, would have to be dismantled.

Tai Kok Tsui Tai Kok Tsui is an area west of Mong Kok in Yau Tsim Mong District, Yau Tsim Mong district in the Kowloon region of Hong Kong. The mixed land use of industrial and residential is present in the old area. The Cosmopolitan Dock and oil depots we ...

residents said the railway would cause unbearable noise pollution to residents in some districts and could cause a number of old buildings with poor foundations to collapse.New front opens in fight against hi-speed rail link
, ''The Standard'' (4 January 2010) A number of different groups, ranging from environmentalists to the affected villagers, opposed the project for different reasons. With regular demonstrations, the collection of signatures and various other forms of protest, they attempted to raise awareness among the population and to exert pressure upon the respective politicians. By the end of June 2009, more than 10,000 signatures opposing plans for the railway had been collected.
''South China Morning Post'', (28 June 2009) (third party link) Doubts have also been cast on the official projections and plans for the national rail link. While the rail link was designed to connect to the high-speed national rail network at Shibi, Guangzhou, reports showed that nearly 80% of the trains would actually end in

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

.Most trains will stop short of new mega hub
''South China Morning Post'' (16 September 2009) (third party link) Hong Kong's

Pro-democracy camp The pro-democracy camp, also known as the pan-democracy camp, is a political alignment in Hong Kong that supports increased democracy, namely the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council as given by the Basic La ...

has said that the project will only benefit developers.HK protesters fight police over new Guangzhou railway
, ''Taipei Times'', retrieved on 16 January 2010. Meanwhile, Mirana Szeto, a member of the Stop XRL Alliance compared the civil opposition to the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led Demonstration (people), demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsucces ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

some 20 years earlier. "They want the government to stop collusion and corruption, and wanted to fight for democracy". The Professional Commons, a

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

of the

Civic Party The Civic Party (CP) was a pro-democracy camp, pro-democracy liberalism in Hong Kong, liberal political party from March 2006 to May 2023 in Hong Kong. The party was formed in 2006 on the basis of the Article 45 Concern Group, Basic Law Ar ...

(a pro-democracy party), reportedly exposed many flaws in the project through testimonials from rail experts. According to some government members, who opted for a purely generational analysis of the phenomenon, many among the younger generations feel helpless in today's society where it is impossible to move forward or up.. However, other observers regard them as a new civil force bringing along a positive project for Hong Kong. Through its discourse on a more inclusive developmental approach, an encompassing form of democracy and the decolonisation of the territory it has developed during its various urban campaigns, the movement is regarded as striving for the emancipation of both the city and the citizen. Cultural critic Law Wing-Sang regarded the opposition to the Guangzhou-Hong Kong Express Rail Link as the first step of the collapse of the dominant ideology and analysed the movement as having initiated the process of

decolonisation Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby Imperialism, imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholar ...

of Hong Kong, where local economic elites and colonizers have historically worked hand in hand with each other, in what he termed collaborative colonial power.Law Wing-seng, Collaborative colonial power, The Making of the Hong Kong Chinese, Hong Kong University Press, 2009 Ma Ngok, another prominent political observer, also supported the protesters, and regarded the "

black box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

" process through which the project of the Rail Link was arrived at as epitomising the structural governance problem of the Hong Kong administration.

Final approval

The pro-establishment lawmakers who form a majority in the legislature approved the funding at 31 votes to 21 in 2010, with 30 pro-establishment members and 1 pro-democracy member voting for it, while 21 pro-democracy members voted against it. The government's HK$2 billion compensation for affected residents was approved 30–0, as pan-democratic lawmakers stormed out in protest.

References

External links

NowTV video report of demonstrations at Government HouseSiege of LegCo, by reporter and blogger dm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Opposition to the Guangzhou-Hong Kong Express Rail Link 2009 in Hong Kong 2010 in Hong Kong Political protests in Hong Kong History of Hong Kong Hong Kong–Mainland China conflict Protests in China Rail transport in Hong Kong Controversies in Hong Kong