A political crisis that shook Hong Kong to its core has tested the city's valued reputation as Asia's financial hub. For several weeks now, residents have organised regular protests demanding the resignation of the city's leader, and on July 1 a small group of protesters broke into the Legislative Council building by force and occupied the legislature's main chamber for several hours.

The break-in was an escalated response to the police's use of excessive force in an earlier protest, and at the time of writing, more than a dozen people were arrested for storming the chamber. The unrest and the series of clashes between the police and civilians raise questions about Hong Kong's perceived stability.

The protests broke out in early June, first opposing a bill that would allow criminal extraditions with mainland China, and have morphed into a wider movement against the police, the special administrative region government and the central government in Beijing.