Protest Against the Prohibition on Face Covering Regulation
- Project
- EXH-006
- Location
- Causeway Bay and Mong Kok, Hong Kong
- Date
- 4 October 2019
On the afternoon of 4 October 2019, Chief Executive Carrie Lam invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance — a law that had not been used in over half a century — to enact the Prohibition on Face Covering Regulation, effective midnight. The regulation made it illegal for participants in public assemblies and processions to cover their faces, with penalties of up to one year's imprisonment and a HK$25,000 fine. Critics immediately noted the asymmetry: the law applied to protesters, not to the police officers who had been routinely concealing their identification numbers.
The announcement triggered the most widespread unrest since the movement began in June. Protests erupted across all 18 districts simultaneously — the first time every district had seen demonstrations on a single day. Lady Liberty HK marched alongside protesters in Causeway Bay and Mong Kok that evening, moving through streets where demonstrators had occupied roads, dismantled traffic lights, and set up barricades.
In Causeway Bay, large crowds gathered along Hennessy Road, with protesters blocking traffic and setting the entrance of the MTR station alight. Lady Liberty's presence in the district — a 4-metre figure in helmet, gas mask, and eye shield — carried particular weight on a night when the government had sought to criminalize the very face coverings that protesters wore to protect their identities. In Mong Kok, demonstrators converged on the intersection of Nathan Road and Argyle Street, erecting barricades from wooden planks, bamboo poles, and street furniture. The statue moved with the crowds there too.
By the end of the night, at least 31 protesters had been injured across the city. A 14-year-old in Yuen Long was shot in the thigh by an off-duty police officer and taken to Tuen Mun Hospital. MTR suspended services on all lines — an unprecedented measure. In Tsuen Wan, a group of protesters gathered to read out a declaration proclaiming a "Hong Kong Provisional Government," a statement of symbolic defiance against a government they said had forfeited its mandate.
The law that was meant to deter people from coming out had the opposite effect. Across Hong Kong that evening, people wore their masks openly, defiantly, and in greater numbers than before.