If Chinese leaders had been in any doubt about Hong Kong’s hopes for democracy, a protest march by tens of thousands of the territory’s citizens on December 4th will have set them right. The huge demonstration was also a deep embarrassment for the territory’s new chief executive, Donald Tsang, who has tried to cajole Hong Kong’s democrats into accepting only vague assurances that fully democratic elections will one day be held. But despite the demands, neither Mr Tsang nor the Chinese government is likely to make big concessions.
The protesters marched peacefully through central Hong Kong to the government’s headquarters. Although the turnout was smaller than that for Hong Kong’s two biggest political demonstrations in recent years, on July 1st 2003 and July 1st 2004, it was larger than organisers had predicted”possibly more than 100,000 (though the organisers claimed 250,000). In an unprecedented gesture by a top establishment figure, a former head of the civil service, Anson Chan, once Mr Tsang’s boss, briefly marched with them.
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