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On July 1997, the former British colony of Hong Kong officially became part of the People's Republic of China. But while the Communist leaders in Beijing would like to remember this day as a glorious moment in the history of the whole nation, today at 3pm thousands of Hong Kongers rallied to demand more democracy , in an open act of defiance against the central government. A large crowd gathered at Victoria Park, in front of Hong Kong Central Library . The protesters are now marching towards Central , the city's business and financial district. Half a million people are expected to take part in the rally . The demonstration was organised by Occupy Central with Love and Peace , a movement launched by Hong Kong professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting . The movement demands direct elections of Hong Kong's Chief Executive in 2017.  At the end of last month, the Occupy Central movement organised an unofficial referendum . As the polls closed on Sunday, 787,767 Hong Kongers had cas

On Wednesday 18  Next Media , Hong Kong's largest media company, was the target of an unprecedented hacking attack that paralysed some of its most prominent websites, such as that of the popular newspaper Apple Daily . Tim Yiu, Next Media 's chief operating officer, said that he received the first reports of massive attacks at around 2 am. According to Eric Chen, the president of Apple Daily Taiwan , the company had reinforced its web defences against hacking following attacks in February, but the last attacks were so strong that the system was overwhelmed. The Hong Kong website of Apple Daily  was able to resume operations only after 12 hours, while its Taiwan edition was affected less severely. Apple Daily head office in Taipei ( source ) It is not clear who is behind the attacks, but many suspect that they were launched on Beijing's initiative or by pro-Beijing groups. Jimmy Lai, the founder of Next Media, stated that he didn't want to speculate, but tha

On June 10 the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued a white paper aimed at clarifying the concept and implementation of the "one country, two systems" model in Hong Kong.  The document shocked many Hong Kongers, who believe that Beijing is trying to restrict their freedom and autonomy and bring the former British colony in line with the policies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The white paper in fact bluntly reaffirms that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is subordinate to the central government. According to the white paper , " the central government exercises overall jurisdiction over the HKSAR, including the powers directly exercised by the central government, and the powers delegated to the HKSAR by the central government to enable it to exercise a high degree of autonomy in accordance with the law. The central government has the power of oversight over the exercise of a high degree of auto