Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

World

Hong Kong irks Beijing as more than 600,000 join unofficial democracy vote

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • dbe62499-
    Image 1 of 3

    People queue up at a polling center to vote in an unofficial referendum on democratic reform in Hong Kong Sunday, June 22, 2014. More than 5000,000 people have voted in an unofficial referendum on democratic reform that organize by the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement that has alarmed Beijing and sets the stage for a possible showdown with the government, with mass protests aimed at shutting down the Chinese capitalist enclave's financial district. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) (The Associated Press)

  • 9f0b875d-
    Image 2 of 3

    People queue up at a polling center to vote in an unofficial referendum on democratic reform in Hong Kong Sunday, June 22, 2014. More than 5000,000 people have voted in an unofficial referendum on democratic reform organize by the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement that has alarmed Beijing and sets the stage for a possible showdown with the government, with mass protests aimed at shutting down the Chinese capitalist enclave's financial district. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) (The Associated Press)

  • e59f8ee1-
    Image 3 of 3

    A voter leaves a polling station for an unofficial referendum on democratic reform in Hong Kong Sunday, June 22, 2014. More than 500,000 people have voted in an unofficial referendum on democratic reform organized by the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement that has alarmed Beijing and sets the stage for a possible showdown with the government, with mass protests aimed at shutting down the Chinese capitalist enclave's financial district. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) (The Associated Press)

HONG KONG – More than half a million Hong Kongers have voted in an unofficial referendum on democratic reform in the specially administered Chinese city that Beijing has blasted as illegal.

About 26,500 people cast ballots at 15 polling stations around the city on Sunday. About 636,000 ballots have been cast since voting started Friday, most of them online or through a smartphone app.

Tensions have soared in Hong Kong over how much say residents of the former British colony can have in choosing their next leader, who's currently hand-picked by a 1,200-member committee of mostly pro-Beijing elites.

Beijing has pledged to allow Hong Kongers to choose their own leader, known as the chief executive, starting in 2017. But the central government has balked at letting residents nominate their own candidates.