Fighting for their future

IN THE end, warnings from Beijing about sowing chaos did not scare the people of Hong Kong. Rather, they were emboldened. On July 1st hundreds of thousands of residents marched through the streets of the territory in one of the largest displays of defiance since the city’s reversion to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The march came days after nearly 800,000 people had taken part in a controversial mock referendum, whose results showed that Hong Kongers want more say in the choosing of their chief executive. Chinese leaders had declared the poll illegal.

The protests are part of a growing confrontation about the future of Hong Kong, but they are also where two visions for the future of China collide. Demonstrators want an expansion of the former British territory’s social and political freedoms, which were retained under the handover agreement. Chinese leaders do not want full, Western-style democracy in Hong Kong because they view such freedoms as an unwelcome example for China. They have taken a more aggressive line on Hong Kong as President Xi Jinping attempts to consolidate his power at home and China’s influence in the region (see next two stories). The prospect now looms of more serious clashes in Hong Kong. It could be a long summer for the city’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, as he juggles the competing demands of China’s leaders and Hong Kong’s people.