On September 28, 2014, Hong Kong pro-democracy group Occupy Central launched a mass civil disobedience campaign calling for greater political freedom from Beijing. Defiant protesters stood their ground outside the city's government headquarters.
They were protesting against the Chinese government's recent decision to refuse to grant full democracy to the semi-autonomous territory and a tense week of student-led demonstrations came to a climax.
The demonstrations, the most intense civil unrest in Hong Kong's history as a Special Administrative Region, were sparked by Beijing's decision in August to restrict who can stand for the city's top post.
Hong Kongers will be able to vote for their next chief executive in 2017 but only two or three candidates vetted by a pro-Beijing committee will be allowed to stand - something demonstrators have labelled a "fake democracy" that shows Hong Kong cannot trust its mainland overseers.
Here are the key events in Hong Kong's history that led to these mass demonstrations:
Hong Kong: 156 years under British rule
Hong Kong was under British rule for 156 years before reverting to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997. Here is a timeline of key events from this period:
- March 1839: Governor of Hunan, Lin Tse-hsu, orders 20,000 chests of opium destroyed and for traders to retreat to the British merchant fleet anchored off Hong Kong, in an attempt to stamp out British importation of opium to China through southern Guangzhou. The first Opium War starts in September 1839.
- August 29, 1842: The Queen of England and the Emperor of China sign the Treaty of Nanking; the first of a series of so-called 'Unequal Treaties' between East Asian states and western powers. The peace deal ends the first Opium War and cedes Hong Kong Island to Britain.
- October 18, 1860: Kowloon Peninsula is ceded under the Convention of Peking, that ends the second Opium War (1856-1860).
- July 1, 1898: China leases the rural New Territories -- the mainland area adjacent to Kowloon and 235 islands -- to Britain for 99 years.
- 1941: Japan occupies Hong Kong.
- 1946: Britain re-establishes civil government. Hundreds of thousands of former Hong Kong residents return, along with refugees fleeing the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists in China.
China reasserts sovereignty over Hong Kong
- March, 1979: Hong Kong Governor Murray MacLehose raises the issue of Hong Kong with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping on his first official visit to China. Deng says China will reassert sovereignty over the "special region" after June 30, 1997.
- 1982: Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath meets Deng Xiaoping as Margaret Thatcher's special envoy. Deng tells him after 1997 China will rule Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" policy.
- September 22, 1982: British Prime Minister Thatcher makes her first visit to China to discuss Hong Kong's future.
- December 19, 1984: The Sino-British Joint Declaration, a treaty agreeing that all of Hong Kong would be returned to China at midnight on June 30, 1997, is signed in Beijing after four months of talks. It is ratified in May 1985.
- June 1985: A 58-member Basic Law Drafting Committee is formed in Beijing to draw up Hong Kong's new mini constitution, the Basic Law. China's National People's Congress approves the final draft in April 1990.
- July 9, 1992: Conservative British politician Chris Patten takes up his post as Hong Kong's last governor.
- April 22, 1993: China and the UK resume negotiations on the future of Hong Kong after a hiatus of several months.
- January 26, 1996: Beijing forms the 150-member Preparatory Committee of the Hong Kong SAR to appoint a 400-member Selection Committee that will choose Hong Kong's future Chief Executive.
- September 26, 1997: China and the UK agree on arrangements for the handover ceremony.
- February 23, 1997: Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in Beijing votes to repeal or amend various laws regarding civil liberties in Hong Kong.
- June 30, 1997: The British flag is lowered and the Hong Kong and Chinese flags raised at midnight to signal Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty after 156 years of British rule, becoming a Special Administrative Regun (SAR) of China.
- July 1, 1997: More than 4,000 troops from China's People's Liberation Army cross the border into Hong Kong in the early hours of the morning. Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, and the Provisional Legislative Council, are sworn in later in the day.
Sources: Reuters; BBC; A Political Chronology of Central, South and East Asia, (Europa Publications, 2001).
July 1: A short history of Hong Kong's march for democracy
July 1 is traditionally a day of protest in Hong Kong as it marks the anniversary of the handover from Britain to China in 1997, under a "one country, two systems" agreement.
Correction: June 4, 1998 - The Chief Executive of Hong Kong was Tung Chee-hwa during this time, and not Donald Tsang.
