Umbrella Movement
The Umbrella Movement (Chinese: 雨傘運動) was a political movement that emerged during the 2014 Hong Kong protests. Its name arose from the use of umbrellas as a tool for passive resistance to the Hong Kong Police's use of pepper spray to disperse the crowd during a 79-day occupation of the city demanding more transparent elections, which was sparked by the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPCSC) of 31 August 2014 that prescribed a selective pre-screening of candidates for the 2017 election of Hong Kong's chief executive.
| Date | 28 September – 15 December 2014 (79 days) |
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| Location | Admiralty, Mong Kok, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong |
| Also known as | Occupy Central Movement |
| Cause | China's decision to rule out full universal suffrage in Hong Kong |
| Organised by | Civil Disobedience Movement |
| Participants | |
| Umbrella Movement | |||||||||||||||||||
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Umbrella banner, Admiralty, Hong Kong, 29 September 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 雨傘運動 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 雨伞运动 | ||||||||||||||||||
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The movement consisted of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 26 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) are groups principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision. Since the start of the 2014 protests, movement activists have complained of harassment from political opponents "alarmingly similar to the way mainland Chinese activists and their families have long been targeted" and have been prosecuted and jailed for their participation in acts of protest.