2014 - 雨傘運動 Umbrella Movement

Background:

Hong Kong’s political reform for a more democratic system has been on-going since the handover. In 2013 Professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting proposed an occupying movement which involved civil disobedience as a means to fight for genuine universal suffrage for the Chief Executive and the LegCo. Other organizations such as Scholarism and the Alliance for True Democracy also proposed their preferred reforms.The NPCSC’s decision on 31st August regarding the reform was heavily criticized as highly restrictive, such as setting a limit on the number of candidates, requiring them to obtain more than half of the endorsements from 1,200 person nominating committee. This effectively meant that only pro-Beijing candidates would be allowed to stand.

The society of Hong Kong reacted strongly to the NPCSC's decision. The HKFS and Scholarism scheduled a week-long school boycott campaign in September 2014. The Occupy Central campaign also planned to initiate by late-September or early-October.            

Details:

By the end of the week-long strike (27 September), the leaders of the HKFS and Scholarism stormed and occupied the Civic Square outside the government headquarters. After they were surrounded by the police, large crowds of people showed up in support of their actions. The leaders of Occupy Central also immediately pushed forward the initiation of their campaign and mobilized supporters.

Tensions grew as pepper spray and eventually tear gas were used to disperse the crowd. After some back-and-forth, protesters eventually occupied the three main areas, Admiralty, Causeway Bay, and Mongkok. As talks between the representatives of the HKFS and the government ended with no concrete results, the clashes between protestors and the police gradually became more violent. As the movement drew on, there were disagreements among the leaders on the optimal strategy, such as whether to continue the occupation.

As the movement started to lose momentum, the police was finally successful in removing all occupiers from the streets. Lasting for a total of 79 days, the movement has gained widespread foreign media attention and widely covered by theWestern media.

Consequences: Following the end of the movement, supporters felt disillusioned as they were unsure what more can they do to continue the search for democracy. Some localist activist groups such as Hong Kong Indigenous and Youngspiration were formed.

On the other hand, Hong Kong was more politically divided than ever. Counter-mobilizations during the occupation led to the creation of many groups in support of the government and the police. The use of violence by the police during the movement also became one of the key point of contention, especially on the use of tear gas and the attacks towards protesters.

Based on the NPCSC's decision, the government’s political reform proposal was rejected in the LegCo as the democrats controlled the veto to constitutional reforms, though their jobs were made easier by a technical error made by the pro-Beijing legislators who walked out of the Chamber right before the vote.

News Report from the New York Times, 30 September 2014News Report from the Wall Street Journal, 01 October 2014News Report from South China Morning Post, 07 October 2014

Pro-Beijing commentary, Ta Kung Pao, 05 October 2014 (Chinese) (English-translated)

Pro-Democracy commentary, Apple Daily, 29 September 2014 (Chinese) (English-translated)