Hong Kong's year in review: The highs, lows and unexpected twists of 2015

Cannix Yau looks back at the biggest news stories of 2015, their impact on Hong Kong and their far-reaching implications. The political and social fallout of 2014’s Occupy protests reverberated throughout the past year. Partisan politics brought democratic reform to a standstill, leaving relations between the legislature and executive at an all-time low. Meanwhile, political turmoil spread to Hong Kong’s most prestigious university. And for the first time in the city’s history, a former chief executive was taken to court to face charges of misconduct in office. The highs, lows and unexpected twists of 2015 will continue to shape the year ahead.

Political turmoil

Hong Kong’s bitterly divided political scene dominated the news for much of the year, and reached boiling point in July when the Legislative Council decided on the fate of the government’s Beijing-decreed democratic reform package allowing limited universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017.

As expected, pan-democrats all voted against what they saw as “fake democracy”. While that was enough to deny the government the two-thirds majority needed to endorse the package, a totally unexpected fiasco came in the form of Beijing loyalists staging a walkout shortly before the vote, leaving only eight pro-establishment lawmakers to support the reform plan.

Most of the government’s allies left the chamber in the mistaken belief that the vote would be adjourned to enable them to wait for rural kingpin Lau Wong-fat, who was stuck in traffic on his way to Legco. “Waiting for Uncle Fat” became the joke phrase of the year.

As a result, next year’s chief executive election will be held exactly as before with no greater public participation, while a deeply divided legislature continues to delay and block government policies.