How do you follow a record-breaking march with an estimated 2 million turnout? Hong Kong’s extradition bill protesters face challenges deciding their next step

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy bloc and devoted but leaderless protesters on Monday struggled with ways to follow Sunday’s record-breaking march. The Civil Human Rights Front, which organised the march against a contentious extradition bill, estimated almost two million people took to the streets. Thousands remained to occupy sections of roads in Admiralty, in the evening and a small fraction – hundreds of them – stayed overnight. They retreated to a protest zone at the Legislative Council to allow blocked roads to be reopened to traffic in the morning. The crowd then swelled as fresh faces including secondary school pupils who had changed out of their uniforms, tertiary students on a break and adults on strike joined. Many said they were frustrated that the government remained unresponsive to their demands, including for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to step down, for the bill to be fully withdrawn and police to be held accountable for firing on protesters. Some admitted being confused about the next course of action and asked reporters what would happen next. An 18-year-old university student, surnamed Tang, said he was surprised there were so few protesters on Monday morning. “I’ve been waiting for hours for something to happen, but nothing has,” Tang said. Another secondary school pupil who joined on Monday said he would go home and return after his exams on Tuesday. While the front and other pressure groups had called for a strike on Monday, it was met with a mild reaction. One worker, 25, said his boss allowed him to join the strike and protest against the bill, but he felt there was not enough focus. “Everyone has a different cause … Some people want Lam to resign, others want to condemn police,” he said. One frontline protester, who wished to be unnamed, said he supported the morning retreat. “There’s just not enough people out there,” he said. “This is a lesson we learnt from the Occupy movement in 2014. There’s no point always occupying the roads.” He noted the movement was leaderless. “At this point, no one can make decisions, not even Joshua Wong Chi-fung,” he said, referring to the former student leader released from prison on Monday morning and who later made an appearance at the protest site. By evening, the atmosphere outside the Chief Executive’s Office was divided as protesters were unsure whether to march to Government House. Hundreds had earlier marched from the Legislative Council to Lam’s office demanding a dialogue with the city leader, before spilling onto Lung Wo Road and blocking traffic. Pan-democrat lawmaker Au Nok-hin warned of difficulties in marching to Lam’s residence on Upper Albert Road but insisted the decision lay with the protesters. The front said it was still formulating its next steps. “We are trying to connect various factions – lawmakers, labour unions and students – to come up with a plan of action,” the front’s vice-convener Bonnie Leung Wing-man said. “At the moment, there is no fixed plan.” Leung said the front would maintain its key demands. The extradition bill has been at the centre of a political storm in Hong Kong in recent months. If passed, it would allow the city to transfer suspects to jurisdictions it lacks extradition agreements with, on a case-by-case basis, including mainland China. Critics fear Beijing could use the new arrangement to target political opponents and that suspects could be sent to jurisdictions where a fair trial was not guaranteed. The discord led to a massive protest in Admiralty last Wednesday, during which police and protesters clashed as the legislature was surrounded by activists, and about 80 people were injured. Lam announced on Saturday that the bill would be suspended, but only issued a public apology via a statement six hours into the march on Sunday. Chinese University political scientist, Ivan Choy Chi-keung, said the pan-democrats should not dwell on the bill’s full withdrawal, saying the suspension had effectively the same meaning. Choy said the bloc should call on the authorities to stop branding last Wednesday’s clashes a riot and ask for protesters not to be prosecuted. Separately, police appeared to have reduced its presence in Admiralty on Sunday night, with only a small group seen stationing inside government headquarters. Council Front lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick said the change in police tactics meant protesters were less inclined to act radically. “The general view is not to push [defence lines],” Chu said.