I have several teacher friends in Hong Kong right now and the city has erupted in protests. That might be too strong a word since the protests have been almost entirely nonviolent. I fear that may be because the Hong Kong crowds are afraid of what Beijing might do. Anyone else have any perspective that might be helpful?

We have our very own on the spot reporter, Mrs Ren, who might have thoughts on this.

Over to you Mrs Ren.

I've been thinking of Ren and hoping she is safe and well in all this.

I am fine, thanks. I live about 12 miles from it all right out in the country. However , of course it dominates our news and our daily lives.
We have had no real dissension here since the 1960's when there were riots when the price of Star Ferry went up by 20 centsHK.
I do not know how much you all know. If I am oversimplifying I am sorry. In 1997 we were given back to China, after a lot of discussions and meetings. We were given a Basic law to guide us and it basically said that we were to be run with a 1 country, 2 systems rule.The main thing was that we would be gradually given the means to elect our own government, full choice to start in 2017.The Beijing Government have rather reneiged on this by saying yes we can vote in our own Legislature but only from a select group CHOSEN BY guess who. So it is a choice with no choice. They are giving the reason as something like "If we give you the choice of who to choose from, you might choose someone who didn't like China and would go against our ideas , and we cant have that can we?
Since the electorate are Chinese, they are hardly going to universally vote in an anti Chinese are they? Sigh. The other reason is that other small regions who want their own governments might stir things up too which is not to the overall benefit of China.
Anyway, Groups here have organised peaceful and caring protests , which really are campaigns of disobedience. Occupy Central is based on the plan to sit in in the biggest financial district and close it down until Beijing succumbs.
University students have successfully done that (their lecturers have been down their giving them talks and enhancing their learning. Many of these lecturers are Westerners)
Traffic was stopped, businesses closed, schools in the area closed.
Sunday the order was give for Police to fire about 80 canisters of tear Gas and fire rubber bullets at these kids, who are not exactly evil war mongerors, but genuine seekers after justice who wish for HK people to get what they were promised. Such an uproar ensued about the violence of the police that they were withdrawn. People continued to sit in, face the gas etc The weather is hot..
The latest is that planes and helicopters have been flying low over the harbour. What is next is to be seen.
I am not agreeing with the way the dissension is being carried out, but by gosh I wholeheartedly defend their right to act.

Sorry Trident I realise I didn't answer your question. I truly believe the demonstrations are peaceful, not because of fear of a 1989 type massacre, but because they believe that a peaceful caring attitude will be more likely to work.
What strikes an onlooker is the friendly supportive manner of the people towards each other, the students who are picking up rubbish and keeping the area clean and above the peace and quiet.It reminds me of the days after the Crackdown when demonstrations were held here and everyone had time for each other.
Tomorrow is Chinese National Day, a Public Holiday and an important day , of course, for the PRC. Watch this space!

What you provided was great! I just really didn't know much about the reasoning; I've only heard the accounts of my friends and from what I read on the news sites. I have heard of it being called the "Umbrella Revolution" because of all the umbrellas brought to protect against tear gas and pepper spray. They are getting pretty inventive!

They really are, they have brought clingwrap to protect the skin from the spray . As my dad would have said "Pretty dashed clever, these Chinese! ( He was a war correspondent for the BBC during the 40s and saw Hong Kong in its troubles then. He always said he would like Chinese companions in times of trouble (So resourceful)

Glad to know you are OK Ren. I hope things end up being resolved peacefully.

The Chinese government made those promises because they didn't want the financial sector in Hong Kong to leave. If they do start to leave and go to safer places like Singapore or Sydney the Beijing government might be killing the goose who laid the golden egg.

shooting themselves in the foot , yes!

Here's a good one:

The chief executive, CY Leung, has remarked that civil nomination for chief executive election would result in the city's "poorer people dominating elections", and that the SAR would end up with "that kind of politics and policies".You can imagine how that has pleased the demonstrators. Oh dear.
He has also said that taxing the rich and helping the poor will cause economic disaster.

The demonstrations are still with us, in spite of our poor maligned police having little idea on how to control matters and continue to throw pepper and bash people who are still down there. That problem I would say stems from the fact that police have not had to control anything but small groups of orderly demonstrators since the weeks following the 1989 murders in Beijing. They are quite puzzled.
The sit downs continue to be largely orderly , although a lot of small business people are truly fed up with the loss of trade in Mong Kok particularly.
After over a month it is almost becoming part of life.

Another gem from our esteemed leader this week , to the effect that Sport and Religion are not of much importance to HK as they don't make money.... Oh dear me again.

He sounds like a keeper.