Beijing remains unlikely to cave to pro-democracy protesters' demands, but it is now losing hearts and minds.

Pro-democracy protesters out in force in Hong Kong

BY RACHEL LU-SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

HONG KONG -- Future generations may well commemorate Sept. 28, 2014 in the history of Hong Kong as the day when the famously apolitical city turned unmistakably political. Tens of thousands of protesters, calling for "true democracy" -- that is, no Beijing-led nomination process in the planned 2017 election for the city's chief executive, its top government official -- confronted the police in the heart of Hong Kong.

A Turning Point in the Fight for Hong Kong by Thavam