Advertisement Continue reading the main storyBusinesses also find Hong Kong appealing because of its political stability, but thousands of people demonstrated and clashed with the police on Sunday night in anticipation of Beijing’s action, which could incite more street protests. “Whether it would affect my seat is secondary,” Nathan Law, 23, a new member of the Legislative Council who advocates greater self-determination for Hong Kong, said of the ruling by Beijing. Such a process is likely to be contentious, said Simon Young, a legal scholar at the University of Hong Kong, because the language of Beijing’s decision is short on specifics. In the meantime, he added, “the courts in Hong Kong will have to interpret the interpretation.”The Chinese government’s overarching goal is to crush a small but growing independence movement in Hong Kong, which gained momentum after Beijing rejected calls for free elections in the territory during the enormous pro-democracy demonstrations of 2014. In a scene that resembled the 2014 demonstrations, the police used pepper spray early Monday to battle crowds of protesters who had gathered around the Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, some of whom were shouting, “Hong Kong independence.”

Source: International New York Times November 07, 2016 03:23 UTC