HONG KONG >> Scores of red Chinese flags now flap near the Hong Kong government headquarters in preparation for China’s national day as police patrolled the area thousands of demonstrators occupied a decade ago to protest Beijing’s restrictions on candidates running for the city’s top job.

In September 2014, protesters fended off police’s pepper spray using their umbrellas in a 79-day face-off, and the largely peaceful Umbrella Movement saw more people join an encampment.

The movement, also known as Occupy Central, catalyzed a profound political awakening among many young Hong Kongers and shaped the huge anti-government protests in 2019, the biggest challenge to Beijing since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that critics say cracked down on freedoms.

Many leading activists have been prosecuted, including some former leaders of the 2014 movement.

— The Associated Press