HONG KONG -- The first time the Hong Kong government tried to put into law a security bill that would restrict civil liberties, the city's Civil Human Rights Front organized a protest that drew more than 500,000 residents, a stunning turnout that helped force authorities to scrap the plan.
The demonstration took place on July 1, 2003, exactly six years after Britain handed Hong Kong back to China. The protest started a tradition in which the CHRF organized demonstrations every July 1 in which people expressed grievances on a range of issues including Hong Kong's horrifically-high housing prices.
