Democracy activists scuffled with police in Hong Kong on Saturday as they sought to air their grievances with Chinese President Hu Jintao, visiting the former British colony on the 10th anniversary of its return to China.
Several dozen protesters pushed and shouted at police in heavy rain as they tried to advance on Hu's hotel to hand in a petition demanding democracy, protection of human rights and atonement from Beijing for the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square that saw hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people killed by troops.
Shouting slogans and carrying banners, the protesters marched to within a few blocks of the hotel but were blocked by more than 100 police officers.
Hu arrived on Friday and during the trip - his first to Hong Kong as president - he has lauded Hong Kong's progress over the past 10 years, praised its prospects, urged the city's leaders to heed the public more and called on Hong Kong's nearly 7 million people to be more patriotic. At a banquet on Saturday evening, Hu made oblique comments that the city's pluralistic society needed to "closely unite" and "seek common ground, while reserving differences".
Hu has avoided addressing the issue of democratic reforms - and how the city might reconcile growing calls by the public and a vocal pro-democracy camp for direct elections.
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