About a million people have marched through the streets of Hong Kong this week, in sweltering heat. That's one in seven people who live there.

The protests have rolled on all week, and there have been clashes with police. It's not clear when the marches will stop, or how much they'll escalate.

Hong Kongers are protesting against a proposed extradition law, which could see dissidents sent to China, but the roots of their anger goes a lot deeper.

Mainland China has been trying to erode Hong Kong's independence ever since the British handover in 1997.

In fact, what's happening now is just the latest chapter in a long and weird history that involves being passed between two world powers over the course of more than a hundred years.

So how did Hong Kong get here, and is this its last stand?

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Jerome Taylor,  AFP Bureau Chief, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan

Dr Graeme Smith, Research Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University