Pro-Beijing camp

Following this weekend's historic visit of China's first aircraft carrier, Hong Kong is expected to play host to more frequent military displays as Beijing seeks new ways of forging nationalist sentiment across the free-wheeling financial hub.

Hong Kong leader-elect Carrie Lam said on April 11 there is no room for moves towards independence in the former British colony which she said needs the support of the central government in Beijing to boost economic development over the next five years. 

Hong Kong's legislature on June 18 vetoed a China-vetted electoral reform package that had been criticized by opposition pro-democracy lawmakers and activists as undemocratic, potentially easing the prospect of fresh mass protests. 

Pro-democracy campaigners took to the streets of Hong Kong June 14, but in far smaller numbers than expected, before a vote on a political reform package that has divided the city and sparked mass protests.

Hong Kong authorities on Nov. 18 cleared part of the city's main pro-democracy protest camp, the first of several planned evictions to shrink mass sit-ins that have blocked major thoroughfares for seven weeks.
      

More than 160,000 people took part in an unofficial Hong Kong vote on electoral reform Friday, at a time of heightened tensions as pro-democracy activists worry that Beijing will backtrack on its promise of universal suffrage.