Financial Times corrects Hong Kong protests reference after mischaracterising timing of National Security Law

The Financial Times has amended an article that incorrectly described the relationship between Hong Kong’s mass protests and the introduction of China’s National Security Law, issued under Beijing’s direction in 2020.

The original version of the October 21 feature, “Hongkongers in Britain fear being caught in immigration backlash,” stated that the law followed demonstrations against the National Security Law itself. The FT has now clarified that the protests in question were pro-democracy demonstrations that preceded and helped trigger the law’s imposition — not rallies opposing it after enactment.

The correction was published on October 22 and applies to both the web and app editions. The article, which profiled Hongkongers who relocated to the UK under the British National (Overseas) visa scheme, framed their move within the context of Beijing’s political crackdown. Misstating the chronology, however, suggested that the mass protests were a reaction to the National Security Law rather than part of the wave of dissent that prompted its creation, inverting cause and effect.

That inversion risked distorting readers’ understanding of one of the most consequential political ruptures in Hong Kong’s modern history — implying opposition to legislation already in force rather than resistance to an expanding state security apparatus that curtailed civil liberties. The FT updated the article to accurately reflect that the up to two million demonstrators who took to the streets in 2019 were campaigning for democracy and autonomy, not specifically against the National Security Law, which was introduced the following year.