Hong Kong riot police fired volleys of tear gas at pro-democracy demonstrators late on Sunday night, just hours before one of the world’s major financial centres was due to open for business.<br /><br />The week-long protests are turning into the worst unrest since China took back control of the former British colony in 1997.<br /><br />The crowd was sent fleeing and several scuffles broke out along streets near the main government compound.<br /><br />While the territory’s Chief Executive appealed for calm, protest leaders demanded his resignation.<br /><br />“Seeing this is such an impactful incident, particularly because of the tear gas deployment, we need to sit down and review what happened to date. I guess it’s time to ask the government to step down. I mean talking about C.Y. Leung to step down.”<br /><br />The latest series of rallies have revealed deep anger at Beijing’s reluctance to hold direct elections in 2017.<br /><br />China guaranteed Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy under the “one country, two systems” policy, with universal suffrage set as an eventual goal.<br /><br />But protesters fear Beijing wants to tighten its grip on the territory of 7 million people.<br /><br />The government was quick to quash rumours that the Chinese army might intervene, leading some to wonder whether Hong Kong is on the brink of its own Tiananmen Square uprising.<br /><br />So far Beijing has remained silent over the protests but some analysts doubt whether Chinese leaders will negotiate, for fear of encouraging protests in mainland cities.<br /><br />Australia and Italy issued travel warnings for the city destination while some financial firms advised staff to work from home on Monday.
