Hong Kong: Protesters Press Beijing for Changes

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/world/asia/hong-kong-protesters-press-beijing-for-changes.html

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Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets on Monday, demanding the resignation of their Beijing-backed leader and pressing for promised democratic changes so they can choose their own top representative. The annual protest march is a sign of the growing gulf between Hong Kong and mainland China 16 years after the city ceased to be a British colony and returned to Beijing’s control. Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, was not elected, but instead picked by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing and pro-business elites. Organizers said 430,000 protesters turned out, while the police estimated the crowd to be 66,000. Hong Kong University researchers put the number at 88,000 to 98,000. Beijing has pledged to let Hong Kong pick its leader no earlier than 2017 and the entire legislature by 2020. But residents of the city, now a special administrative region of China, are frustrated that there have been few signs of progress.