Hong Kong After the Umbrella Movement

efore police in riot gear fired rounds of tear gas at unarmed protesters on September 28, few could have expected that the siege of the government headquarters would turn the scripted Occupy Central (zhanling zhonghuan ) into Hong Kong's biggest and most unprecedented pro-democracy movement amidst its electoral reforms. (1) In the next twoand-a-half months, protesters of what became the Umbrella Movement (yusan yundong ) Across the encampments, they would press on for a focused goal -"genuine universal suffrage" (zhen puxuan ) for election of their Chief Executive, the city's top leader -until police officers cleared the last occupied site on December 15. This article assesses the implications of the Umbrella Movement as it drew to a close. It explains how the movement morphed from the Occupy Central movement, and reviews the controversy raised over the city's rule of law and constitutional relations with mainland China. Despite having amplified democracy supporters' yearnings for universal suffrage, the movement, in which no compromise was offered by Beijing and the Hong Kong government, will likely deepen social cleavages and send the city toward an uncertain future.