Pro-Beijing crowd in Sham Shui Po puts their hands up in the face of crowd. Police now on scene.

The fast majority of thousands of protesters in this giant Chinese city with a British background of missing democracy are not giving up.

Tourists visiting this metropole city get a very different impression of a vibrant business city.

Benny Tai, 50, one of the founders of the “Occupy Central” civil disobedience movement, poses during a rally in Hong Kong September 26, 2014. Tai said, “I hope more people will join and hope it will be peaceful.” China rules Hong Kong under a “one country, two systems” formula that accords the territory limited democracy.

On August 31, 2014, China’s parliament rejected the demands of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement for the right to freely choose their leader, and said it would tightly control the nomination of candidates for the 2017 elections. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) said it had endorsed a framework to let only two or three candidates run in the elections. A 1,200-member nominating panel will vet candidates, who must be “patriots”, and obtain majority backing from the committee. There can be no open nominations. The nominating committee is likely to be stacked with Beijing loyalists.

This move by China has prompted a “civil disobedience” campaign ever since by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists, which has escalated into unrest and the use of tear gas and batons by riot police.