ABSTRACT
This book proposes that the Chinese Communist Party has two mechanisms at its disposal to maintain security and stability: Political control and securitization of political dissidence. These two mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, as regimes adapt and shift their responses to maximize effectiveness based on the situation at hand. This chapter describes the chronology of events leading up to the Umbrella Movement. The 8.31 decision and police hard repression in the initial stages of the OCLP indicated the CCP’s determination to exert brute control. The Beijing and Hong Kong governments’ insistence on political control, however, whipped a rather unpopular proposal into shape. Every repressive move backfired and drew more support for the protests, which is consistent with the predictions of psychological reactance theory.
