Hong Kong profile – Timeline

2014 July – Tens of thousands of protesters take part in what organisers say could be Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy rally in a decade.

2014 August – Chinese government rules out a fully democratic election for Hong Kong leader in 2017, saying that only candidates approved by Beijing will be allowed to run.

2014 September-November – Pro-democracy demonstrators occupy the city centre for weeks in protest at the Chinese government’s decision to limit voters’ choices in the 2017 Hong Kong leadership election. More than 100,000 people took to the streets at the height of the Occupy Central protests.

2014 December – Authorities take down Mong Kok protest camp, leaving a few hundred protesters at two camps at Admiralty and Causeway Bay.

2014 December – Hong Kong tycoon and former government official Thomas Kwok is sentenced to five years in jail in the city’s biggest-ever corruption case.

2015 June – Legislative Council rejects proposals for electing the territory’s next leader in 2017. Despite pro-democracy protests and a lengthy consultation process, the plans remained the same as those outlined by China in 2014.

2016 August – Hundreds of protesters rally against the disqualification of six pro-independence candidates from Legislative Council elections on 4 September.

2016 September – A new generation of pro-independence activists win seats in Legislative Council elections in the highest turnout since the 1997 handover from Britain to China.

2016 November – Thousands of people gather in central Hong Kong to show their support for China’s intervention in the territory’s political affairs after Beijing moves to have two pro-independence legislators removed from office.

2016 November -The high court disqualifies pro-independence legislators Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-Ching from taking their seats in the Legislative Council after they refused to pledge allegiance to China during a swearing in ceremony.

2016 December – Chief Executive CY Leung announces he will not see re-election when his current term ends in July 2017, citing family reasons.