Free Republic

Hong Kong's mass protest is networked. Activists are relying on a free app that can send messages without any cellphone connection. On Sunday alone, the app was downloaded more than 100,000 times in Hong Kong, its developers said. FireChat relies on "mesh networking", a technique that allows data to zip directly from one phone to another via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Democracy demonstrators take to streets in Hong Kong

The typhoons that lash Hong Kong make quick work of umbrellas, the squalls twisting them into Calder sculptures of disarranged fabric and metal. On the evening of Sept. 28, prime typhoon season in this South China Sea outpost, flocks of umbrellas unfurled on the streets of Hong Kong. This time, they guarded not against rain and wind but tear gas and pepper spray. One of the world’s safest and most orderly cities—a metropolis of 7.2 million people that experienced just 14 homicides in the first half of this year—erupted into a battleground, as gas-mask-clad riot police unleashed noxious chemicals on...

Occupy Central movement is aimed at challenging China's supreme power organ. People have been staging protests in Hong Kong seeking the "real universal suffrage." They attempt to force the central authorities to change the decision of China's top legislature. A decision made on Aug. 31 granted universal suffrage in the selection of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)'s chief executive on the basis of nomination by a "select committee". The decision possesses unchallengeable legal status and authority. It is "a certain choice and the only choice" to safeguard the decision, in line with the "one country, two systems" policy...

“Hong Kong has picked up the baton and is leading the pro-democracy movement of China now,” said Rose Tang, who was among the student leaders in 1989. “Hong Kong is becoming the catalyst to kick-start the end of an era – the Chinese communist’s one-party dictatorship.” [....] What has been called the Umbrella Revolution could as well be dubbed the Protest of Politeness, amid a burgeoning of ideological optimism in a city normally defined by its conservative dedication to the making of fortunes.

After a day of tense protests in Hong Kong in which at least 34 people were injured, organizers called on tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in the Chinese territory to head home late Sunday. But as Sunday became early Monday, it appeared many of the protesters were set to continue to jam streets of the business district. The sometimes violent demonstrations follow a week of student-led boycotts and protests against what many see as the encroachment of China's political will on Hong Kong's governance. They were responding to China's decision to allow only Beijing-vetted candidates to stand in the...

The BBC's Juiliana Liu says the situation on the ground is "extremely chaotic" and that protestors show no sign of dispersing. Hong Kong police have used tear gas to disperse thousands of pro-democracy protestors near the government complex, after a week of escalating tensions. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested, with hundreds remaining in the city centre late on Sunday. Protestors want the Chinese government to scrap rules allowing it to vet Hong Kong's top leader in the 2017 poll......

Hong Kong police used tear gas on Sunday and warned of further measures as they tried to clear thousands of pro-democracy protesters gathered outside government headquarters in a challenge to Beijing over its decision to restrict democratic reforms for the city. After spending hours holding the protesters at bay, police lobbed canisters of tear gas into the crowd on Sunday evening. The searing fumes sent protesters fleeing down the road, but many came right back to continue their demonstration. Students and activists have been camped out on the streets outside the government complex all weekend. Students started the rally, but...

Hours after the police sought to break up the protest, large crowds of demonstrators remained nearby, sometimes confronting lines of officers and chanting for them to lay down their truncheons and shields. Police officers were also injured in skirmishes with protesters. Streets of a city known as a safe enclave for commerce became a nighttime battleground.

Hong Kong is 13 hours ahead of US Eastern Time.

Aerial footage filmed by a drone shows the large number of people joining pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong democracy protesters camped out in the centre of the global financial hub on Monday (September 29), continuing a stand-off that represents one of the biggest political challenges for Beijing since the Tiananmen Square crackdown 25 years ago. The unrest, the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule over the former British colony in 1997, sent white clouds of gas wafting among some of the world's most valuable office towers and shopping malls before riot police suddenly withdrew around lunchtime on Monday, after three nights of confrontation. As riot police withdrew, weary protesters slept beside roads or...

Hong Kong Protests

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters are taking to the streets of Hong Kong ahead of a national holiday on Wednesday, and they're using a messaging app to keep in touch and defy censorship. FireChat is a messaging app built by the San Francisco-based company Open Garden, which creates products facilitating a more open, decentralized internet. What makes the app fascinating is that it doesn't require the internet for local chat, instead allowing people to connect via Bluetooth. When you first download FireChat, the app doesn't let on that it has become a hub for pro-democracy protesters around the world. Instead, the...

San Francisco politicians, eager to showcase their democratic credentials in their liberty-loving city, traditionally have not shied from taking stances on human rights, checking in on everything from apartheid in South Africa to Burma’s military junta. But on Wednesday, as tens of thousands of peaceful democracy demonstrators who had already been tear-gassed marched in Hong Kong, Mayor Ed Lee was on his City Hall balcony hoisting the flag of the target of those protests — the autocratic government of China.

THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE Keeper of the Flame of the Enlightenment HONG KONG STUDENT PROTESTS The differences between student-led movements in this country and in Hong Kong are striking. One need look no further than their respective demands and the ideas that animate their protests. When American college students are moved enough to organize, they are almost always calling for more “freebies,” not more freedom, as the courageous students today in Hong Kong are doing. The students in Hong Kong are speaking truth to serious power, with all too real consequences for questioning and challenging their ruthless masters in Beijing. When...

The differences between student-led movements in this country and in Hong Kong are striking. One need look no further than their respective demands and the ideas that animate their protests.  When American kids are moved enough to organize, they are almost always protesting for more "freebies," not more freedom, as the courageous students today in Hong Kong are doing.  The students in Hong Kong are speaking truth to real power, with all too real consequences for questioning and challenging their ruthless communist masters. When the Hong Kong protests have subsided, those lucky enough to avoid imprisonment will face a bleak future.  With their...

Americans are caught up with the Ebola crisis and the Secret Service lapses in protecting the White House and the president's family. But what is transpiring in Hong Kong may be of far greater consequence. Last weekend, Hong Kong authorities used pepper spray and tear gas to scatter the remnants of a student protest of the decision to give Beijing veto power over candidates in future elections. The gassing was a blunder. Citizens poured into the streets in solidarity with the protesters. Hong Kong police lacked the nerve or numbers to remove them. The People's Liberation Army stayed in its...

Hong Kong protesters stockpile supplies, fear fresh police advance By Donny Kwok and Yimou Lee HONG KONG Tue Sep 30, 2014 7:26am EDT (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters extended a blockade of Hong Kong streets on Tuesday, stockpiling supplies and erecting makeshift barricades ahead of what some fear may be a push by police to clear the roads before Chinese National Day. Riot police shot pepper spray and tear gas at protesters at the weekend, but by Tuesday evening they had almost completely withdrawn from the downtown Admiralty district except for an area around the government headquarters....

The Hong Kong government said Monday that riot police have pulled back from pro-democracy demonstrations around the city. Explaining the move, the government said in a statement that the protesters on the streets are "calm again." It urged the protesters to disperse to allow emergency vehicles, public transport and other traffic to pass.