The history behind the ‘Umbrella Revolution’

When the British gave Hong Kong back to China in 1997, China promised the city could be semi-autonomous, continue running a capitalist system, offer freedom of speech, religion and of the press. The people of Hong Kong were promised that they could one day vote directly for their new leader. Beijing reneged on the original agreement and has insisted that the candidates must be pre-screened by the Communist Chinese government.

Leo Kavanagh‘s animation for this week’s episode of the The West Block explain the events that led up to the “Umbrella Revolution”.