Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement
(2014) 103(6) The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs 571-580 (Oxford: Routledge, 2014)
University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 052
11 Pages Posted: 30 Aug 2019 Last revised: 5 Oct 2020
Date Written: October 15, 2014
Abstract
Since late September 2014, thousands of protesters have occupied the main thoroughfares of Hong Kong and pressed demands for, inter alia, a genuine election of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR in 2017. The police initially responded with tear gas, to which the protesters defended themselves with umbrellas, hence giving the movement its popular name. The occupation, which was intended as a form of civil disobedience, lasted for 79 days and dramatically changed the socio-political landscape in Hong Kong in the following years. Written in the early days of the movement, this article analysed the causes of this movement and offered some thoughts on its implications for Hong Kong and China.
Keywords: Umbrella Movement, Occupy Central, Civil Disobedience, One Country Two Systems, decolonisation, Sino-British Joint Declaration, Basic Law, election, nomination, Chief Executive of the HKSAR
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