案發前10日，即係1999年9月12號，劉氏夫婦及其他報販首次同青匯代表，商討訂紙嘅新制度，但會面並無成果。霞姐喺3日後同區內報販會面，一致反對青匯無理加紙，並安排由霞姐向青匯以及《東方日報》總發行商「青揚」表達有關報販的不滿。
Ten days before the incident, on 12 September 1999, Mr. and Mrs. Lau and other newspaper vendors met with representatives of Qinghui for the first time to discuss a new system for ordering paper, but the meeting was fruitless. Three days later, Sister Xia met with newspaper vendors in the district and unanimously objected to Qinghui's unreasonable paper addition, and arranged for Sister Xia to express her dissatisfaction with Qinghui and Qingyang, the chief publisher of Oriental Daily.