Progress then setbacks in Hong Kong's pursuit of democracy: a timeline

Twenty-five years ago, the United Kingdom handed the governance of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in what became known as the Hong Kong handover.

Before Hong Kong became the international financial hub it is today, it was a small fishing village in the southern part of China's Guangdong province, and while formerly a British colony, its history is intertwined with mainland Chinese politics.

Until 1997, Hong Kong was ruled by a British-appointed governor. The governor selected members of the city's legislative council until 1985 when Hong Kongers began electing lawmakers. However, not all the seats were directly elected by the people: some were functional constituencies, and others were geographical, mostly with pro-Beijing interests. 

On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong's governor stepped down, and retired shipping tycoon Tung Chee-hwa became the city's first chief executive after being elected by a selection committee whose 400 members were chosen by Beijing.

Residents were promised universal suffrage — one person, one vote — in Hong Kong's constitution, known as The Basic Law. And yet, successive chief executives have been chosen by a small circle of elites with strong ties to the Chinese government. 

Since the 2000s, millions of Hong Kongers have called for the chief executive to be directly elected, but under Beijing's mandate, there has been no meaningful progress toward universal suffrage.

Here is a timeline of Hong Kong's progress and setbacks in its pursuit of democracy:

1842: Hong Kong Island becomes a Crown colony of the British Empire after it wins the First Opium War with Imperial China and signs the Treaty of Nanking.

1860: The Crown colony expands to include the Kowloon Peninsula after the United Kingdom wins the Second Opium War with China and signs the Convention of Peking.

1898: Britain signs the Second Convention of Peking with China to lease the New Territories for 99 years until June 30, 1997.

1949: The Chinese Communist Party establishes the People's Republic of China. Many people flee to Hong Kong to escape the Communist takeover.

1966-1976: Chinese leader Mao Zedong launches the Cultural Revolution, purging anyone the government deems to be promoting non-Communist values. Another wave of people try to make their way to Hong Kong by sea.

1976: The United Kingdom ratifies the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which extends to Hong Kong and other British-dependent territories.

1979:  Hong Kong governor Murray MacLehose represents the United Kingdom in a visit to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in Beijing and asks that British administration be extended beyond 1997. Deng rejects the request and says China intends to resume sovereignty over Hong Kong.

1984: China and the United Kingdom sign a joint declaration on Hong Kong's return to China on July 1, 1997, where the Chinese government promises Hong Kong's capitalist system and way of life will remain unchanged for 50 years after the handover under the "one country, two systems" arrangement.

1985: Hong Kong holds its first-ever legislative council election, in which more than half of its members are selected by mostly democratically elected district council deputies.

1989: The Chinese military cracks down on student demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

1990: China's National People's Congress adopts Hong Kong's Basic Law, which stipulates that Hong Kong will apply the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights after the handover, and the chief executive and lawmakers will eventually be elected by universal suffrage.

1991: The Hong Kong Legislative Council introduces geographical constituencies whose representatives are directly elected by the people.

1996: The Chinese government establishes a provisional Hong Kong Legislative Council with appointees to replace the Legislative Council elected by Hong Kong's electorate in 1995.

1997: A committee of 400 Beijing appointees selects the first chief executive of post-handover Hong Kong several months before the city's return to China.

2003: More than 500,000 people join the rally against the Hong Kong government's controversial draft national security legislation which, if passed, would empower local police to prosecute people for treason, secession, sedition and subversion against the Chinese government. The city's security minister resigns several weeks after the rally.

2004: China's National People's Congress rules out direct elections of the chief executive in 2007 and of all legislators in 2008.

2007: China's National People's Congress rejects the election of the chief executive and all legislators by universal suffrage by 2012, saying it is delayed until 2017. 

2010: Hong Kong's Legislative Council approves government-proposed electoral reforms that rule out direct elections but increases the number of seats in the Legislative Council election by 2012 and expands the size of the committee that selects the chief executive in the same year.

2012: Thousands of Hong Kongers hold parades and hunger strikes to protest the Hong Kong government's proposed Chinese propaganda curriculum. The proposal is scrapped in little more than a week. 

2014: China's National People's Congress says candidates for Hong Kong's chief executive should be pre-screened before they can run and limited to three. The announcement sparks the Umbrella Movement in reference to umbrellas used for defence against police pepper spray.  The mass protests last from September to December but are not successful in getting the Chinese government to withhold its plan.

2017: The Hong Kong government disqualifies pro-democracy lawmakers who modified their oaths of allegiance to the People's Republic of China during the swearing-in ceremony at the Legislative Council held in 2016.

2019: The Hong Kong government introduces a controversial draft extradition law that, if passed, would empower it to transfer people to mainland Chinese courts for criminal trials. The draft law sparks protests by millions of people.

2020: China's National People's Congress passes a revamped national security law on Hong Kong, allowing the Chinese government to convict people of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign entities on vaguely defined terms.

2021: The Hong Kong government overhauls the electoral system so that all candidates running for the positions of chief executive and legislators are pre-screened for their allegiance to the People's Republic of China.

2022: John Lee, Hong Kong's former security chief, who oversaw the police crackdown on protesters in 2019, is selected as the city's chief executive uncontested.