Just to clarify for people the Occupy protest in Hong Kong is very very different and should not be confused with the ones in North America. Hong Kong was a UK imperial possession for a long time and has been democratic for a very long time under UK rule. As part of a deal with China to hand back HK early, an agreement was signed in 1997 between China, UK and the HK people to allow for the HK to remain a democracy for at least fifty following the handover and, in twenty years, allow for HK citizens to elect their top government official.
China this year reneged on that deal and put in a stipulation to only allow candidates that met Beijing approval onto the election ballot. This is anti-democratic itself and is why Hong Kong people are protesting enmasse against the changes. This is a protest not for wealth disparity but for democracy itself in HK.
It was an entirely peaceful protest with zero weapons nor violence against police but riot police were deployed early on and started using pepper spray, batons and riot shields against the people sitting in when a similar protest/vigil marking the anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre a little earlier with similar numbers of people had no such response. The response was extremely heavy handed for Hong Kong protest standards and situation seems to be getting worse atm. Some feel this was the Beijing leadership "sending a message"
I'm from the area and it breaks my heart to see old ladies who are just participating in the sit in protest get pepper sprayed without ever even moving anywhere near the police cordon.
Unfortunately I don't think China is going to back down on this matter. Money talks with the Chinese leadership and at the time of the 1997 handover, HK made up more than 18% of China's total GDP... Now it's closer to 3-4% IIRC. There are also rumors of Chinese troop and armored vehicle mobilization into Hong Kong so I can't see this ending well. I'm going back to HK in a few weeks too.
