Civil unrest occurred in Mong Kok, Hong Kong from the night of 8 February 2016 until the following morning. The incident escalated from the government's crackdown on unlicensed street hawkers during the Chinese New Year holidays. Eventual violent clashes broke out between police and protesters, resulting in injuries on both sides.
The Hong Kong government has classified the violent incident as a riot (旺角暴動), while some media outlets and social media platforms have opted for calling the event the "Fishball Revolution" (魚蛋革命), in reference to fishballs, a popular Hong Kong street food. The violence has been described by The Economist as "the worst outbreak of rioting since the 1960s."
Background
Political context
After the 2014 protests, the popularity of Leung Chun-ying continued to be low, dropping slightly below the low point it had during the protests. His administration also received poor popularity ratings in a survey by HKPOP, an institute affiliated with the University of Hong Kong. The relationship between the Hong Kong Police Force, often referred to as "Asia's finest" in the past, and the public also became strained mainly due to a number of controversies, including the beating of protester Ken Tsang by seven plainclothes officers in Admiralty, the indiscriminate clubbing of members of the public by superintendent Franklin Chu in Mong Kok during the 2014 protests and the considerable delay for them to be prosecuted.
The events of 2014 spawned a number of new activist groups with some taking an anti-government and militant stance. Hong Kong Indigenous, a localist camp party formed in early 2015, had previously been involved in violent clashes with police in several anti-parallel trading protests. The various localist groups hold a strong anti-mainland sentiment, generally with the view that the increasing political and economic integration of Hong Kong and Mainland China, as well as the influx of Mainland tourists and immigrants are undermining the autonomy and identity of Hong Kong.
Hawkers crackdown
The Chinese New Year holidays have traditionally attracted many unlicensed hawkers (street vendors), selling Hong Kong street food and other products, at popular locations including Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mong Kok and Kweilin Street, Sham Shui Po. Despite operating without licence, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) had, in the past, not taken action against hawkers during the New Year holidays. However, in the years prior to the unrest, the FEHD had begun monitoring unlicensed cooked food hawkers during the Chinese New Year at night markets over fears of unsanitary practices, obstruction of roadways and general disruption. During Chinese New Year in 2014, FEHD staff conducted surprise inspections at Kweilin Street Night Market making arrests and confiscating stalls causing some public disquiet. However, shortly after the FEHD officers departed, the hawkers returned and a lively night market resumed.
In November 2014 Sham Shui Po District Council, passed a motion of "zero tolerance" towards unlicensed hawkers for the upcoming Chinese New Year. However, grassroots organisations complained that, due to the government's refusal to issue new hawker licences or construct new markets, hawkers could only subsist by defying the law; they further asserted that Kweilin Street night market was enjoying a resurgence in popularity and a "zero tolerance" policy would only exacerbate grievances. During Chinese New Year in 2015, there were at least three groups giving vocal support to street vendors in Sham Shui Po with Hong Kong Indigenous embarking on a campaign of street cleaning to allay concerns over hygiene. In 2016, however, street hawkers were put under pressure by a citywide FEHD crackdown which drew discontent from locals.
From the evening of 2 February 2016, in the run up to Chinese New Year, hawkers in Tuen Mun who were setting up stall outside a mall near Leung King Estate, operated by Link REIT, were opposed by a group of masked men identifying themselves as "management" and claiming to represent The Link. These men later insisted that hawkers could no longer set up in or around the estate, so as not to affect the mall tenants. During the late night market, a number of incidents occurred but were not acted upon by police.