The Leadership Crisis in China's Freest City

July 1, officially marked as the day that Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, is unofficially the city’s day of discontent. Ever since 2003, when a landmark protest brought half a million people – more than 7 percent of the population – onto the streets to demonstrate against national security legislation and the unpopular administration of the city’s first Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, the people of Hong Kong have used July 1 to march for a rainbow of causes, from rural preservation to migrant worker rights to better treatment for sex workers. But yesterday’s rally – the 10th iteration of the 7/1 marches, as they are known in Cantonese – was startlingly different in the monolithic unity of the demand being made. The only thing being asked for was representative leadership.