Ongoing pro-democracy violent protests in Hong Kong (HK) have elicited a reaction from the Chinese government, which has termed them as "radical" and has condemned vandalism by protesters.

Roll back to 2014 when protesters led the 'Occupy Central' movement in HK. They occupied the central business district of HK with one major demand, that HK elects its leader like the rest of the democracies in the world (currently HK's leader is elected through an electoral college comprising 1,200 people). They wanted more of a role in electing their leader. The protests went on for more than two months and were tremendously inconvenient for the public, mobility, the economy. They lost the sympathy of the people. The protesteors also did not get much out of them.