Need to Know - Hong Kong Protests

This week saw an escalation from protestors in Hong Kong as students, with the support of many in Hong Kong, took to government offices and business districts objecting to political interference.

Students Fight Back

Protests began when mainland China reneged on the political promise made in 1997 often called "one country, two systems" opting instead for a new process requiring a committee to pre-approve candidates for election.

Since then there has been a wave of students occupying areas around government offices and business districts with police responding with tear gas and batons. At one point even school children joined university students to protest with many university students being arrested for occupying government buildings.

Financial and Technological Impact

The protests have had a major impact on business in Hong Kong resulting in banks shutting down offices and with no end in sight many Hong Kong stocks tumbled as markets took a hammering. Retailers suffered when the protests spanned China's Golden week holiday which normally results in an influx of shoppers from mainland China with an estimated loss of $2billion Hong Kong dollars.

As protests grew ugly the authorities blocked Instagram along with censoring of other internet services. However protestors have found ways around the censorship using mesh networks for phone to phone communication bypassing restrictions. The Chinese government has apparently used "main-in-the-middle" attack's on Yahoo allowing officials to snoop on communications along with blocking links. There have also been reports of sophisticated malware spying on protestors using Android and iOS devices.

Responses Near and Far

As protests grow more volatile the world has taken notice with the British government deciding to review it's policy of selling tear gas to Hong Kong after it's use on protestors. The website Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) was created for the international community to send messages of support to students protesting.

With power slowly slipping away the Chinese-state newspaper threatened protestors calling for them to cease immediately warning the end result would be "disastrous" and accusing the protestors of "blaspheming" the rule of law.

As it stands the current Hong Kong leader Chief Executive Leung has refused to step down but has instead offered to talk to protestors.