MOSCOW, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Police in Hong Kong used pepper spray to disperse a crowd Saturday, after more than 1,000 school pupils joined a series of demonstrations to oppose Beijing's decision in late August to rule out fully democratic elections for the city's leader in 2017, Reuters reported.
"I want to tell C.Y. Leung [chief executive of Hong Kong] and Xi Jinping [General Secretary of the Communist Party of China] that the mission of fighting for universal suffrage does not rest upon the young people, it is everyone's responsibility," 17-year old student leader Joshua Wong was quoted as saying by Reuters while police dragged him away.
University students, who were later joined by the school pupils, stormed government headquarters and went over the fences near Hong Kong's financial district in a rally that begun on Friday.
The students demanded democratic elections claiming that the Chinese government is betraying promises regarding the former British Colony being able to choose their leader or chief executive via voting.
Currently, the Hong Kong leader is to be chosen by a 1,200-member committee, known as the National People's Congress (NPC) standing committee, of elites loyal to Beijing.
The National People's Congress, which is the national legislature of the People's Republic of China, passed the resolution on August 31, that two to three candidates for the 2017 election will be proposed by the standing committee, and each candidate must win at least half of the votes from the committee. The general public will then cast votes for the candidates, and the winner will be appointed by the Central Government of China.
Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under "one China, two systems", meaning that under China, the regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau would be able to retain autonomy in their economic and political systems.
