Umbrella Revolution: Hong Kong for Hong Kongers?

MASTRONE, MOIRA

2. Term (Master)

Chinese Area Studies (Minor subject)

2015

2015-07-27

66 pages

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the Umbrella Movement in the 2014’s protests in Hong Kong. The thesis focuses on the protests in 2014 and the latest events until June 2015, through understanding the past situation in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a particular historical background, it was a British colony for 150 years and only in 1997 returned to Chinese control. Today Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region under the principle of “One country, Two systems”, such as Taiwan and Macau. The research also incorporates several theories, which were specifically chosen to analyze the Umbrella Movement’s reasons of the protests. The analysis is conducted in order to answer the following problem formulation: Why are the activists protesting? I was helped to answer this problem formulation by answering one research question: What is the democratic deficit in Hong Kong? To answer the research question I conduct an analysis examining the degree of autonomy of Hong Kong. I go through the foundation of HKSAR and some of the fundamental articles of Hong Kong’s mini constitution. The main democratic deficit faced by Hong Kong is the political system. In fact, it is under Chinese control together with foreign affairs. From the analysis has resulted that one of the reasons of the protests in 2014 by the Umbrella Movement is related with the democratic deficit of the territory, such as claiming genuine universal suffrage. The thesis concludes that the activists of the Umbrella Revolution protested, throughout 2014, mainly against the reform package presented by Hong Kong’s government to the vote of the LegCo, among other reasons.

Hong Kong ; Umbrella Revolution ; Social Movements ; Student Protests ; Genuine Democracy ; Universal Suffrage

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