First young people, then bankers: How Hong Kong protests swelled

Five years ago, Hana volunteered with Occupy Central with Love and Peace, a nonviolent democracy movement that hoped to compel Beijing to grant unfettered elections to Hong Kong. The effort, subsumed by a mass student-led occupation, ended in failure. 

So, in June, when militant young people surrounded the city’s government center and tangled with riot police who sprayed the crowd with tear gas and rubber bullets, Hana, who requested we only use her first name, says she was initially repelled by what the mostly young protesters had wrought. But she acknowledges their efforts worked. The legislature canceled its meeting, and the government suspended a bill that would have allowed China to demand criminal suspects be extradited there. Weeks later, when young people clad in construction helmets broke into the city’s legislative chamber, defacing the emblem and spray-painting slogans, Hana was convinced their tactics had achieved what peaceful sit-ins had not.  

Hong Kong ignitesA wide array of playersProfoundly unjust response?Beijing's view