Thousands of university and college students in Hong Kong started a week long boycott of classes this week.

They have been demonstrating and occupying their campuses as part of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement.

It’s planning demonstrations, occupations and mass sit in the Central District’s financial centres in October.

More than 400 lecturers and staff are supporting the students. And secondary school students are also distributing the movement’s yellow ribbons outside their classes and are planning to join the boycott.

The pro-Chinese Alliance for Peace Democracy set up a special hotline for the public to report students planning to boycott classes.

But it was flooded with prank calls, including one reporting Harry Potter organising a boycott in Hogwarts.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have threatened to “crack down” on the protests as it tries to attack Hong Kong ’s limited political freedoms.

It has promised direct elections by 2017 for Hong Kong 's leader the chief executive. But the CCP ruled that only candidates it selected and approved would be allowed to run.

Opposed

China ’s National People's Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang warned, “You don’t have to love the Communist Party, but you cannot be opposed to the party and its one-party rule.”

In June 180,000 people attended the 25th anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre when the CCP sent in the military against protesters.

In response, the government issued a white paper stating that, “loving the country is the basic political requirement for all of Hong Kong ’s administrators.”

Then on 1 July over 500,000 people joined Hong Kong ’s annual democracy march.

It took 7 hours to pass and was followed by all night occupation of a road by the government headquarters.

Over 500 people were arrested, but most were quickly released. Earlier this year Occupy central also organised an unofficial referendum 800,000 voted which is more than 10 percent of the total population.

Hong Kong has a history of resistance and victory.

Two years ago a teachers, parents and pupils’ campaign stopped CCP-approved “patriotic education” being introduced.