The Hong Kong Pro-democracy Movement: Challenges and Divisions in the Past Decade

Abstract

This article is an attempt to examine the challenges to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the movement’s internal divisions in the past decade or so. It is based on the author’s research and writing on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement in the past decades as well as his role as a close participant/observer when he served as co-ordinator in a number of campaigns of the movement. In various activities and protests, he had numerous informal discussions and conversations with leaders of pro-democracy groups, activists and ordinary participants. This article does not argue that improved unity and performance of the pro-democracy movement might have changed the outcome; after all, Chinese leaders’ assessment of the broad domestic environment and their Hong Kong policy were the more determining factors. This article has no intention to allocate responsibility and blame either.

Keywords

• pro-democracy movement
• progress in democracy
• provocative campaigns
• younger generation of activists
• internal divisions
• “one country two systems” model
• electoral competition