BY EMILY CHUNG AND NIKKI SUN
HONG KONG Fri Jun 20, 2014 6:09am EDT
Supporters hold banners and placards at Hong Kong’s financial Central district during a kick-off ceremony to urge people to vote in an unofficial referendum June 20, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/BOBBY YIP
(Reuters) – More than 200,000 people voted for full democracy in Hong Kong within the first few hours of an unofficial online referendum on Friday in a civil campaign that has sparked warnings from China’s Communist Party leaders.
Social tensions have steadily risen in the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 – with pro-democracy activists threatening to blockade part of the city’s financial district if China doesn’t allow opposition candidates to run in a 2017 election.
While Beijing says Hong Kong can go ahead with a city-wide vote in 2017 for the city’s top leader, the most far-reaching experiment in democracy in China since the Communist takeover in 1949, senior Chinese officials have ruled out allowing the public to nominate candidates.
From: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/20/us-hongkong-vote-idUSKBN0EV0E520140620