Businesses that supported the 2019 protest movement have been systematically pressured, boycotted, and driven out by pro-Beijing groups and official harassment
The Color of Resistance, and Its Price
During the 2019 protests, Hong Kong developed an informal economic solidarity movement. Businesses that supported the protesters displayed yellow ribbons or stickers. Those aligned with Beijing’s position displayed blue. Hong Kongers who shared the protesters’ values made deliberate choices about where they shopped, ate, and banked. Yellow restaurants were packed. Blue ones were avoided. In a city where commerce is culture, spending money became a political act.
The yellow economy was a creative and peaceful expression of solidarity. It required no violence, no coordination, no illegal activity. It was simply people choosing to support businesses that shared their values – a form of civic engagement that would be considered entirely unremarkable in any democratic country.
Beijing and Hong Kong’s pro-establishment camp could not allow it to stand.
The Pressure Campaign
The campaign against yellow businesses took multiple forms. Pro-Beijing groups organized counter-boycotts of shops that displayed pro-democracy symbols. Social media campaigns identified yellow businesses and called on loyalists to report them to authorities for any possible code violation or licensing irregularity. Landlords – many of whom have close ties to pro-Beijing political networks – declined to renew leases for businesses that had been publicly identified as pro-democracy.
In some cases, pressure was more direct. Business owners reported receiving visits from individuals who warned them about the reputational and commercial consequences of continuing to display their political sympathies. The message was rarely explicit. It did not need to be. The pattern of what happened to businesses that maintained their yellow status was visible enough to convey the threat clearly.
The NSL added a legal dimension to the pressure. Under the law’s broad definitions, displaying certain symbols associated with the 2019 protest movement could theoretically constitute an offense. The blue-black protest flag, the slogan Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times, and even the raised fist symbol have all been subject to police warnings or prosecution. Business owners displaying solidarity symbols faced not just economic pressure but potential criminal liability.
The Disappearance of Press and Media Allies
The economic crackdown on pro-democracy sentiment extended beyond retail to media. Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s most widely read pro-democracy newspaper and the city’s top-selling tabloid, was forced to close in June 2021 after authorities froze the assets of its parent company under the NSL. Its founder, Jimmy Lai, remained in pretrial detention. Its journalists were arrested. Its bank accounts were seized before the paper had been convicted of anything.
Stand News, a digital news outlet that had become a crucial source of coverage of the protests and their aftermath, was raided in December 2021. Its editors were arrested under sedition laws. The organization shut down immediately. Citizen News, another independent outlet, closed preemptively in January 2022 citing safety concerns for its staff.
These were not small operations. Apple Daily had a daily print circulation of hundreds of thousands and a massive digital following. Their elimination was not incidental to the political crackdown – it was central to it. Without independent journalism, the economic and civic networks that sustained the yellow economy lost their public voice.
The Broader Economic Chill
The consequences of the crackdown on pro-democracy economic activity extend beyond the individual businesses that closed or the newspapers that were shut down. Hong Kong’s reputation as a global financial center rested in large part on its rule of law, its independent judiciary, its free press, and its openness to the free flow of information. All of these have been substantially compromised.
International banks, law firms, and financial institutions have noted the changed environment. Some have quietly reduced their Hong Kong footprints. Some have relocated regional headquarters to Singapore. The flight of human capital – the lawyers, bankers, journalists, and professionals who left under the BNO scheme or simply emigrated – has reduced the talent pool that made Hong Kong economically distinctive.
Freedom House has tracked the relationship between political freedom and economic vitality in Hong Kong, noting that the city’s long-term competitive position as a financial hub is inseparable from the legal and civic freedoms that Beijing has been systematically dismantling.
What Small Businesses Lost
The human story of the yellow economy’s destruction is best told in the individual cases of the small businesses that did not survive: the cafe whose owner fled to the UK after their lease was not renewed; the bookshop that quietly removed its display of protest-related titles before eventually closing; the restaurant that served as an informal community gathering point for young activists until those young activists were imprisoned or gone.
These were not major commercial enterprises. They were the social infrastructure of a civic culture – the places where people gathered, talked, organized, and sustained one another’s sense of collective identity. Their disappearance is not just an economic story. It is the story of a community being atomized, its gathering places closed, its shared spaces converted into the kind of depoliticized commercial landscape that authoritarian governments prefer.
Resistance in Small Things
Some yellow businesses survive in diminished form. Some do so quietly, without symbols, serving communities that remember what they once represented. Some have relocated to the diaspora – yellow restaurants in London and Toronto that serve as gathering points for the Hong Kong community abroad.
Hong Kong Watch documents the ongoing economic dimensions of Beijing’s crackdown alongside the legal and political ones, recognizing that the destruction of civil society and the destruction of pro-democracy commerce are two aspects of the same project.
The yellow economy was never going to defeat the NSL. But it demonstrated something important: that ordinary economic activity, freely chosen, is itself a political act. And that a government threatened by people choosing which restaurant to eat in is a government that understands, at some level, that it does not have the genuine consent of the governed.
Senior Journalist & Editor, Apple Daily UK
Contact: athena.lai@appledaily.uk
Athena Lai is a senior journalist and editor with extensive experience in Chinese-language investigative reporting and editorial leadership. Educated at a leading journalism school in the United Kingdom, Athena received formal training in fact-checking methodology, editorial governance, and international media standards, grounding her work in globally recognized best practices.
She has held senior editorial roles at Apple Daily and other liberal Chinese publications, where she oversaw coverage of Hong Kong civil liberties, diaspora politics, rule of law, and press freedom. Athena’s reporting is distinguished by disciplined sourcing, cross-verification, and a clear separation between factual reporting and opinion, reinforcing reader trust.
Beyond reporting, Athena has served as an editor responsible for mentoring journalists, enforcing ethical guidelines, and managing sensitive investigations. Her newsroom leadership reflects real-world experience navigating legal risk, source protection, and editorial independence under pressure.
Athena’s authority comes from both her byline history and her editorial stewardship. She has reviewed and approved hundreds of articles, ensuring compliance with defamation standards, accuracy benchmarks, and responsible language use. Her work demonstrates lived experience within high-stakes news environments rather than theoretical expertise.
Committed to journalistic integrity, Athena believes credible journalism is built on transparency, accountability, and institutional memory. Her role at Apple Daily UK reflects that commitment, positioning her as a trusted voice within independent Chinese media.
