On a recent Sunday night in the working-class Hong Kong district of Mong Kok, a group of radical young activists swore through loudspeakers and gestured rudely as they denounced mainland Chinese as "prostitutes" and "barbarians."
The youngsters are members of a new front that is using increasingly aggressive tactics to demand an independent Hong Kong free from mainland China's grip.
Their separatist yearnings have alarmed Beijing and the pro-Beijing Hong Kong government which are fighting back to win hearts and minds and forge a spirit of "love China, love Hong Kong" with multimillion-dollar information drives and exchanges.