Proactive internationalization and diaspora mobilization in a networked movement: the case of Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill protests

ABSTRACT

One distinctive feature of the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in Hong Kong is the ‘international front’ on which both Hong-Kong-based activists and members of diaspora communities engaged in public diplomacy and foreign government lobbying. While the emergence of the international front can partly be explained by perceived political opportunities and protesters’ identity change, this article focuses on the evolution of mobilizing structures. Of particular interest is how the mobilizing structures were activated, expanded, and transformed in a protest campaign marked by certain core features of networked social movements. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty activists, the analysis illustrates the co-presence of and complementarity between digitally enabled, citizen self-initiated actions and organization-based mobilization. The analysis also shows how tactical shifts, negotiation of differences among activists, and state response drove the transformation of activist network. General theoretical implications on understanding of diaspora mobilization and networked social movements are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Networked social movements
• diaspora mobilization
• public diplomacy
• foreign lobbying
• mobilizing structures
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgments

Part of the empirical analysis in this article draws upon materials published in a Chinese book chapter entitled “International Front: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Identity,” in Francis L. F. Lee (ed.), Actors in the Contention of Our Times (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In the Anti-ELAB Movement, many supporters appropriated the language of war games and used the term ‘battlefront’ (jin-sin) to name the various types of movement efforts. For example, labor union organizing was considered as constituting the ‘labor union front.’ Efforts to gain international supporter was therefore called the international front.

2. The polls were conducted by the Public Opinion Research Institute. Data available at https://www.pori.hk/pop-poll/ethnic-identity.html?lang=en

3. See, Yuen et al. (in press) for information about survey methodologies.

4. This study did not belong to a funded project, but the in-depth interview procedures and protocols followed the requirement of projects involving social movement actors funded and approved by the author’s institution.

5. To keep a consistent practice, all names used in the article are pseudonyms.

6. ‘“Exodus” from Hong Kong? Those who fear national security law mull best offers from welcoming countries,’ South China Morning Post, 12 July 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francis L. F. Lee

Francis L. F. Lee is Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is lead author of Memories in Tiananmen: Politics and Processes of Collective Remembering in Hong Kong, 1989-2019 (Amsterdam University Press, 2021) and Media and Protest Logics in the Digital Era: The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong (Oxford University Press, 2018). He is an elected Fellow of the International Communication Association as well as chief editor of the Chinese Journal of Communication.