- Unofficial referendum on Hong Kong's political future draws almost 800,000 votes
- Results were announced just before the anniversary of the 1997 handover of power, traditionally a big day for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong
- Hong Kongers angered by what they perceive to be Beijing's undue influence over their political destiny
Hong Kong (CNN) -- July 1, 2014, the 17th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule, promises to be a hot, stormy day.
But the suffocating weather won't stop pro-democracy Hong Kongers -- possibly hundreds of thousands of them -- from filling the streets. Activists are openly challenging China's vision for the city's political future, and they believe the public is on their side.
In a recent unofficial referendum organized by pro-democracy activist group Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP), 787,767 Hong Kongers voted in support of free elections for the city's next leader.
READ MORE: Hong Kong's 'referendum' -- What you should know
The almost-800,000 figure represents about 22% of registered voters in Hong Kong, out of a total of 3.5 million registered voters, according to government figures. Before the vote began ten days ago, organizers were hoping around 100,000 people would participate.
Following the announcement of results, Benny Tai, a co-organiser of OCLP, said: "Today should go down in the history of Hong Kong's constitutional development as the referendum was the largest scale of expression of public opinion in the city's history."
Hong Kong's former second-highest-ranked official, Anson Chan, echoed the sentiment in an interview with CNN on Monday.
"Whatever Beijing says in public now I think it can hardly afford to ignore the voices of 780,000 people."
But the Chinese government's reaction was decidedly more frosty, with the government declaring the poll "illegal" and its results "invalid" even before the ballots were counted.
A recent Chinese state media editorial said the poll was a "farce." Searches for the referendum have also been heavily censored on the Chinese internet.
Showdown over democracy
The city's pro-democracy camp wants fully democratic elections for the city's next leader, while China insists it will only allow elections in which it gets to approve the nominees. Specifically, Beijing says it will only allow candidates who "love China."
The Occupy Central referendum outlined three plans to reform the upcoming election. All three plans proposed that candidates be nominated publicly, regardless of whether the candidates have Beijing's blessing.
Benny Tai, Occupy Central founder
Another question asked if Hong Kong's legislature should veto any nomination process that did not meet "international standards." This was overwhelmingly approved in the referendum.
The high numbers are a sign that Hong Kongers are not about to back down, says Tai, an assistant law professor at the University of Hong Kong.
"(Hong Kong's citizens are) using this opportunity to at least show Beijing how determined we are for universal suffrage, hoping that this may affect the final outcome."
Occupy Central says it hopes the referendum results will spur negotiations. But if no progress is made through legal means, then the group is prepared to disrupt the city to make their statement heard.
If the Hong Kong government doesn't reform its electoral system in line with what Occupy Central is asking for, the group says it will marshal 10,000 people to sit and peacefully block traffic in downtown Hong Kong as a way to pressure Beijing into allowing Hong Kong to exercise "genuine universal suffrage."
"We will only resort to the civil disobedience action as our last resort," says Tai. "Only after exhausting all the legal means and still fail to achieve our goals will we resort to civil disobedience."
Grassroots support
The city is politicized like at no other time in its recent past. While the July 1st anniversary of the handover has always brought demonstrators out onto Hong Kong's hot, crowded streets, often numbering over 100,000, this year protests are expected to be super-sized.
Many Hong Kongers are enraged after the recent publication of a white paper by the Chinese government which declares Beijing's "comprehensive jurisdiction" over Hong Kong.
Chan says the white paper violates the "one country, two systems" principle enshrined in Hong Kong's constitutional Basic Law, which lets the city maintain high autonomy despite being a part of China.
The white paper "makes it quite clear that whatever autonomy we enjoy is for the central government to give and to take away at its pleasure," she says. "I think this has caused real concern."
The inflammatory document came days after 100,000 people showed up to an annual candlelit vigil for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
"(The white paper) has spectacularly backfired, it's made people even more angry," Chan told CNN.
What's next?
The situation in Hong Kong is volatile. Some activists fear a crackdown on freedoms by the Chinese central government, and others look nervously to the possibility of unrest at tomorrow's mass protest.
Michael DeGolyer, Director of the Hong Kong Transition Project, an independent organization that monitors governance in the territory, says the future is incredibly difficult to assess because no one is totally sure what China's officials are thinking.
"We're in a situation where we have a new regime in power and much more volatile circumstances, and we have groups that are much more separatist, challenging the legitimacy of the central government altogether," he says.
"In these circumstances, it is extremely difficult to tell what the central government intends and what they're thinking and how they'll react."
But despite the uncertainty, Hong Kong's democracy supporters remain hopeful.
"I do not think Beijing has made up its mind on universal suffrage, so let's see what happens in the months ahead," says Chan.
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