(T)he new Chinese leadership in Beijing is getting increasingly nervous about Hong Kong's

independent-mindedness.


Earlier this year students protested against the government's plans to implement Chinese patriotism classes in Hong Kong, forcing the authorities to back down

A senior Chinese official in charge of Hong Kong affairs, Zhang Xiaoming, has accused "external powers" - presumably Britain and the US - of helping opposition parties in Hong Kong. Writing in Hong Kong's pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po, Mr Zhang insisted that new legislation was required to stop any such interference.

When outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Hong Kong in July, he was greeted by people demonstrating against what they saw as efforts to remake the territory in China's own image.

The people who brandished the flag were all were young Hong Kong Chinese. Few if any can have been in their teens when Hong Kong was handed over to China.

They were not demanding a return to British rule - instead they were emphasising the separateness of Hong Kong. "We aren't British, and we aren't Chinese," he told me. "We are Hong Kongese, and we want to stay that way."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20461829

Interesting times in Hong Kong and China.