Hong Kong: Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong on Friday clashed with those opposing their movement. The protesters alleged that the attackers were pro-government gangs. The altercations occurred in the crowded shopping area of Mong Konk and in Causeway Bay frequented by tourists from the Chinese mainland. The protestors are demanding the government implement universal suffrage in municipal elections in 2017, and the removal of Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying.
The Chinese Communist Party has adamantly rejected both of those demands and warned that Hong Kong could tumble into chaos if the protests continued. Leaders in Beijing fear that giving democratic power to Hong Kong, a former British colony, would make maintaining control there even harder, but the upheavals over the past week have shown that many Hong Kong residents, especially the young, reject Leung as an inept proxy for the party.