The China Syndrome

Vincent Yu/AP

Hong Kong is due to hold elections in 2017. In August, Beijing ruled against them being fully open elections. There could be many candidates, but Beijing would vet them. In 2012, marchers protested the instatement of a new chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, by Chinese president Hu Jintao. He had been chosen by a hand-picked committee seen as having allegiance to Beijing. The current protests are an extension of those and are being led by two main groups, Occupy Central (aka Occupy Central With Love and Peace) and The Hong Kong Federation of Students. Another key player is 17-year-old Joshua Wong: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29408476
   When the UK gave Hong Kong back to China in 1997, ending 150 years of British rule there, many feared the worst. For some, these fears were assuaged when Hong Kong adopted its Basic Law, which states that for 50 years after the handover, it will coexist with China as "one country, two systems." The fears were reignited a few months ago, though, with Beijing's release of a document reasserting that country's "complete jurisdiction" over Hong Kong: http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/29/world/asia/hong-kong-protest-backgrounder/
   P.S., Hong Kong, famously, is very clean, and the protesters are keeping it that way: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-demonstrators-clean-up-and-recycle-after-night-of-clashes-with-police-9761598.html