The bravery of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement must not be forgotten

Ten years ago this week, a sea of yellow umbrellas filled the streets of Hong Kong in what at the time was the largest mass campaign for democracy in the city. In what became known as the ‘Umbrella Movement’, the people of Hong Kong courageously showed the world their desire for freedom – and their determination to fight for it. For 79 days, crowds occupied major streets in the centre of Hong Kong, demanding genuine multi-party democracy.

The protests were preceded by demands by civil rights groups in an unofficial referendum for universal suffrage in elections for the city’s chief executive (effectively, the mayor) – a right promised in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. At the end of August 2014, Beijing responded by announcing that the 2017 chief executive election and the 2020 legislative council election would indeed be by universal suffrage – but that Beijing would handpick all the candidates.