The protests had a name before they had a name. The class boycott began Sept 22. Civic Square fell to the students on Sept 26. The tear gas came on Sept 28. The umbrellas were already up. Then WCN started broadcasting.
AUG 31, 2014
The 8/31 Decision
Beijing's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress issues the “8/31 Decision” restricting the 2017 Chief Executive election to candidates pre-vetted by a nominating committee. Pro-democracy Hong Kongers read it as the end of any meaningful path to universal suffrage. The detonator is laid.
SEPT 17, 2014 · WCN
Chris Ellis at the London Bitcoin Squat
Ten days before Hong Kong erupts, WCN already has a Bitcoin-funded protest occupation on camera — in London. Chris Ellis posts a trailer apologizing for the lack of live coverage (“due to the evolving situation and lack of good internet”) and follows up with “The Revolution will be Decentralised,” an hour-long interview with squat residents Arthur and Anesu. WCN's HK coverage doesn't come out of nowhere — it comes out of this culture.
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SEPT 22, 2014
Class boycott begins
The Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) launches a week-long class boycott at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and other campuses. Joshua Wong's Scholarism, the secondary-school activist group he founded in 2011, joins in. The boycott is meant to pressure Beijing into reversing the 8/31 Decision. It will end up triggering something much larger.
SEPT 26, 2014
Scholarism storms Civic Square
In the evening, Joshua Wong (then 17) and a few hundred students climb the fence into the closed-off Civic Square at government headquarters. Wong is arrested. The arrests galvanize tens of thousands more to gather outside in the next 48 hours. The Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) campaign, planned by Benny Tai for October, brings its launch forward.
SEPT 28, 2014 · 5:58 PM
Tear gas. Umbrellas.
OCLP formally launches at 1:40 am. By late afternoon, crowds have filled the streets of Admiralty. At 5:58 pm, the Hong Kong Police Force begins firing tear gas at unarmed protesters — 87 canisters over the night. Citizens raise umbrellas as makeshift shields. The image — a wall of yellow umbrellas against tear-gas smoke — names the movement. By dawn, occupations have spread to Mong Kok and Causeway Bay.
SEPT 30, 2014 · MB
First WCN dispatch from a Brooklyn morning
Thomas Hunt closes a Mad Bitcoins news roundup with the first Hong Kong mention in the corpus: a live YouTube video from Occupy Central is on the World Crypto Network feed that morning. Hunt's sign-off is verbatim: “689! Democracy for all! Occupy Hong Kong! Stay safe! Much respect!” — chanting the protesters' nickname for CY Leung, the HK Chief Executive elected by 689 of 1200 election-committee votes.
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OCT 2, 2014 · MB
“Bitcoin could end war” — Occupy Hong Kong
Thomas Hunt dedicates a whole MB episode to the HK escalation: Anonymous declaring war on the HK government over the impending crackdown, Reuters and NYT reports of rubber bullets and tear gas. Hunt makes the explicit ideological move: “Bitcoin could truly end war.” The link from monetary censorship-resistance to political dissent is no longer subtext.
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OCT 3, 2014 · WCN
FireChat: mesh networks meet the protest
Bitcoin Rush Episode #21 leads with HK protesters using FireChat — a peer-to-peer mesh app — to coordinate without relying on telecom infrastructure that could be censored. It is the cleanest example in the entire corpus of the “decentralised tech enables dissent” thesis. “Have you ever seen anything more powerful than this image now,” the host asks, watching the FireChat node-graph propagate across phones in Admiralty.
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OCT 3, 2014
Mong Kok thug attacks
Pro-Beijing counter-protesters attack the Mong Kok encampment. Reporters and protesters are assaulted. HKDemocracyNow surfaces an alleged price list for “Operation Blue Ribbon” — a coordinated, paid effort to dislodge the occupation. This sets the scene for what will happen to WCN's James Bang two weeks later.
OCT 14, 2014 · MB
Sledgehammers in Mong Kok
A combined Oct 11 / Oct 14 episode leads with Reuters reporting that HK police were paid overtime to use sledgehammers and chainsaws on the protest barricades to clear roads. The architecture of the occupation — metal barriers, tied-together pallets, tarps and umbrellas — is being physically dismantled.
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OCT 16-17, 2014 · KEYSTONE
James Bang is assaulted in Mong Kok
In the early morning hours of Oct 17 HK time, WCN reporter James Bang — a 28-year-old digital strategy consultant later profiled by The New Yorker — is pushed to the pavement by police while documenting the chaos in Mong Kok. The moment is captured live in WCN's 8-hour Hong Kong stream at ?t=4370 (1:12:50 into “LIVE FROM HONG KONG 16.10.2014”). Thomas Hunt cuts a 3-minute clip and posts it the same day. A separate Mad Bitcoins episode leads with the assault as its top story.
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OCT 21, 2014
First (and only) televised dialogue
HK government officials, led by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, meet HKFS representatives on live television. It is the only formal dialogue of the 79 days. Nothing concrete is conceded. The momentum begins to bleed out of the occupation.
OCT 22, 2014 · MB
“The power is with the people”
Hunt closes a 13-story news roundup with the HK dialogue, citing Quartz and BBC. His framing: “the government actually met with the protesters, unlike last time when it was just a feint. The power is with the people, and the people of Hong Kong are in the streets.” It is also the last substantive WCN/MB episode of the 2014 HK arc.
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NOV 18-19, 2014
Mong Kok is cleared
After a court injunction, bailiffs and police clear the Mong Kok occupation. The most volatile of the three sites is gone. Some protesters retreat to Admiralty; some go home.
DEC 11, 2014
Admiralty is cleared
The main occupation, the heart of the “umbrella city” built outside government headquarters, is dismantled. Joshua Wong, Benny Tai, and the OCLP organizers surrender for arrest as a final symbolic act.
DEC 12, 2014 · WCN
“James Bang on the front lines in Hong Kong”
Three days before the final clearance, the WCN Flipside news show closes with a credits roll thanking the contributors. DJ Booth name-checks “James Bang on the front lines in Hong Kong. You guys and girls rock my world.” It's a closing-credit shout-out, not new reporting — but it shows Bang was still in HK.
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DEC 15, 2014
Final clearance at Causeway Bay
Police clear the last remaining encampment in Causeway Bay. 79 days, three sites, an estimated 1.2 million Hong Kongers participating at some point. The 8/31 Decision stands. Universal suffrage is not granted. The students go home. The umbrellas come down.
