In Beijing, you have tanks, you have goose-stepping soldiers

marching through the centre of the city,

through Tiananmen Square, in front of chairman Xi Jinping.

While in Hong Kong you have hundreds of thousands

of black-shirted protesters calling for freeing Hong Kong.

Now 22 years after Hong Kong was returned from the UK to China

you have a generation who really do not feel

like they are part of China.

They truly believe that they have a separate identity,

that they are Hong Kongers.

We're right in the middle of the central financial district

of Hong Kong, but this scene that we're seeing right here

is being played out all across Hong Kong,

in virtually every district.

People have come out and they're fighting battles

with their own government and their own police

on the very day that China was going

to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Communist party

rule.

As the protests continue, the tactics are evolving.

You can see the protesters have personally worked out

how to deal with tear gas.

As the tear gas comes in, they either

throw them back or they stuff them into bags with water

and roll them up so the tear gas has basically no effect.

In the background, you can see the Chinese national flag

fluttering on a digital screen above the old Bank of China

building.

Just in front of that is the water cannon truck,

which is on its way here, trying to snuff out what is now

called the Water Revolution.

So the police are blocking the protesters from every angle

here in the narrow streets of Hong Kong.

And now they're trying to hold their breath

as they arrest people.

They don't want us to film what's happening right there.

Right on the corner right there is a man

who the police got hold of.

He doesn't appear to be a protester.

He's in a white T-shirt, no protest equipment,

and he got beaten down to the ground.

They beat him repeatedly, and now he's unconscious.

He was there unconscious for at least the last five minutes.

On the very day that Beijing was hoping

for a display of absolute power and national unity,

Hong Kong has exploded with violent protests

across the entire city.