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Note: This article represents the view of the author and not the University of Hong Kong.

The democratic development is built on people's demand towards democracy. The July 1 rally has already clearly demonstrated Hong Kong people's demand towards democracy.

Apart from the behavioral and opinion analysis, it will also be interesting if we try to examine the democratic development in Hong Kong from the perspective of population figures. The number of participants in the rally can be viewed as a thermometer to measure the public opinion towards all the controversial events occurred over the past 6 months, such as the argument over patriotism, the National People's Congress's interpretation of the Basic Law, the veto of universal suffrage in 2007/08 and the quit of radio shows' hosts. It also serves as some enlightening guidelines on the coming Legislative Council Elections in September. Putting aside these incidents which spark off public debate, the author would like to view the democratic development in Hong Kong from another perspective, which is the population structure.

The public opinion survey conducted in last year's July 1 rally revealed that the young adults had formed the skeleton of the participant forces in these democratic movements. Most of them were students and professionals with relatively higher educational standards. According to the author's on-site observations, this phenomenon was even more common in this year's July 1 rally. According to the 2001 Population Census, among the 920,000 youngsters aged 15-24, around 180,000 (19%) of them were tertiary educated, while the majority of them were still receiving secondary education in school. They will become the new blood to vote in the Legislative Council Elections this September. Regarding the 2,470,000 adults aged 25-44, 560,000 (23%) of them had received tertiary education as well. We can expect these 2 percentages will continue to rise. This group of well-educated elites generally embraces a greater acceptance on the ideas of democracy and freedom, as well as a more persistent attitude on these ideas. They form the base of public support in the democratic movement, and their ideals towards democracy will also influence their next generations.

The growth of this group of elites is also closely connected with the historical development in Hong Kong. No one will object to the statement that Hong Kong is an immigration city. According to the 2001 Population Census, as many as 1,860,000 (28%) people were born in mainland and had lived in Hong Kong for 7 years or more. How many of them came to Hong Kong before the 1970's? It is a pity that the author does not have such figure. However, one point that we can be sure is that most of them came to Hong Kong for shelters because they had to escape from wars, famines or political persecutions. They have no positive feelings towards the Communist governance, and even adopt an evasive attitude towards those in power. Their thoughts may influence their next generations. Yet, in view of the ever-improving education standard and the constitutional development, some of their next generations will fight for more political participation actively.

There are many complicating and intertwining factors in the democratic development in Hong Kong. But viewing from a macro perspective, it has a solid public support. According to the opinion survey conducted by two academics in the July 1 rally this year, among the respondents who aged 15 or above and had participated in the rally, 81% of them had also participated in last year's July 1 rally and 73% of them made the decision to participate in this year's rally a month ago. This represented a group of strong emerging forces who resorted to actions to express their demands.

Hong Kong people have once again expressed their democratic demands peacefully and rationally through this year's July 1 rally. How could the Chief Executive put away this public demand by just repetitively saying "people's voices were heard" and "now it is very late"?