Photo credit: Studio Incendo, Flickr
September 2014: Tens of thousands of pro-democracy and pro-China protestors clashed on the streets of Hong Kong. The culmination of a week of tension after pro-democracy demonstrations were mounted against the policies of the Beijing government, it came to be known as the Umbrella Revolution; the name is evocative of the protestors’ use of umbrellas to shield themselves from pepper spray. A Guardian editorial said afterwards that what China had done would “preserve control but deepen alienation”—another indication, it said, “that compromise and the Chinese communist party are strangers to each other.”
