Shifting strategies from both sides changed balance as Hong Kong protests attacked again in clash

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

From PBS Newshour:

Protests turned violent early Monday morning in Hong Kong as pro-democracy activists clashed with police near government headquarters over protesters’ demands for free elections for Hong Kong’s next leader. The protests gained momentum Sunday night when student leaders urged protesters to surround city government offices before the start of the work day on Monday, the New York Times reported.

Police used pepper spray to disperse protesters who were using umbrellas for protection. The umbrellas have become a symbol of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Twenty-eight people were arrested on Friday and Saturday as a result of the clashes,Reuters reported. The protests in Hong Kong represent the greatest challenge to the China’s Communist Party party since the 1989 Tiananmen protests in Beijing.

“It is by far the first serious challenge domestically to President Xi Jinping,” Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group told NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff in September. “It really is directly a question of the legitimacy and the support of what’s so far been a very popular, very charismatic and very transformative rule.”