The 24-year-old activist has served nearly seven months in prison for an unauthorized assembly during anti-government protests in the city in 2019.

Hong Kong democracy activist Zhou Enlai was released from prison on Saturday. The second anniversary of the city’s large-scale democratic rally, The police are dispatched, and the protests are now almost banned.

After social media appeals to residents to commemorate the failed democratic demonstration, 2,000 police officers have been placed on standby.

Although the city recorded only three local cases of infection last month, the authorities still banned public gatherings.

Beijing’s national security law also criminalizes many objections, and most of the city’s democratic leaders have been arrested, imprisoned or fled overseas.

On Saturday morning, one of them walked out of the prison.

Chow, 24, was besieged by the waiting media, but did not comment when he was driven away.

Supporters chanted “Chou Enlai, come on”, a Cantonese expression of encouragement that was widely used in protests that swept the city.

Some supporters wore black T-shirts and yellow masks, and one person was holding a yellow umbrella, Symbol of protests in the former British colony dating back to 2014.

Mop up

Mr. Zhou comes from a generation of activists who dabbled in politics as a teenager and became a source of inspiration for those annoyed by Beijing’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

She was detained for about seven months for her role in a protest outside the city’s police headquarters in 2019. Youth activists Huang Zhifeng and Lin Yiwen were sentenced in the same case.

Zhou’s release coincided with a sensitive period.

On June 12, two years ago, thousands of protesters surrounded the city’s legislature in an attempt to prevent the passage of a bill that could have allowed extradition to the Chinese judicial system.

After being released in Hong Kong on Saturday, the police cleared the path of a media package for a vehicle carrying Zhou Enlai [Isaac Lawrence/AFP]

Riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse large numbers of people.

The footage of the conflict intensified public anger and fueled an increasingly fierce movement that demanded full democracy for seven months.

This is the most serious challenge to Chinese rule since the return of Hong Kong in 1997, and a large number of people gather every week.

Beijing’s leaders refuted the call for democracy, portraying the protesters as lackeys of “foreign powers” ??trying to undermine China.

After that, they oversaw a total suppression, successfully contained dissent, and completely changed the once outspoken semi-autonomous city.

The spearhead of this repression is the National Security Law.

Under the new law, more than 100 people have been arrested, including Zhou, although she has not yet been charged.

Dozens of other people have been charged, including the democratic media mogul Li Zhiying who was sentenced to prison.

Most people are refused bail, and if convicted, they face life imprisonment.

Protests in Hong Kong were severely restricted last year, but anniversary events are often the focus of attention.

On Friday, two activists from the democratic student political organization were arrested for allegedly advertising an unauthorized gathering.

Last week, the authorities banned the annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing in 1989.

However, many in That night, Hong Kong still quietly expressed resistance by turning on mobile phone lights and lighting candles..