Hong Kong 1 July marches

The Hong Kong 1 July protests were annual protest rallies originally held by the Civil Human Rights Front from the day of handover in 1997 on the HKSAR establishment day. However, it was not until 2003 that the march drew large public attention by opposing the legislation of Basic Law Article 23. The 2003 protest, with 500,000 marchers, was the second-largest protest seen in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover.

Prior to this, only the pro-democracy protest on 21 May 1989 drew more people with 1.5 million marchers in Hong Kong sympathising with the participants of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The introduction of Article 23 legislation was left aside due to the protest. Since then, 1 July marches have been organised every year to demand for democracy, universal suffrage, rights of minorities, protection of freedom of speech, and a variety of other political concerns.

In 2019, the anti-extradition bill protest on 16 June broke the record of largest protest in Hong Kong with nearly 2 million marchers. The 1 July march in the same year with 550,000 marchers, was the largest 1 July march. However, both these widely reported figures are now in doubt with research published by the Public Opinion Programme at The University of Hong Kong (HKUPOP) estimating that the attendance figures were 500,000-800,000 for the 16 June march and 260,000 for 1 July.

In 2020, despite a police ban citing gathering limits during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a dramatically altered legal situation due to the national security law that had come into force only the previous evening, marches with a total of tens of thousands of participants took place in several parts of the city.