Police arrested at least 26 young activists for causing "public nuisance" at a protest ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's arrival in Hong Kong. Animosity towards Beijing has grown among young people in Hong Kong in recent years, with some demanding a full split from the mainland. A protest on July 1, the day of the anniversary, could draw up to 100,000 people.

Protesters previously draped a black sheet over the "Forver Blooming Gold Bauhinia" sculpture. The statue, which depicts Hong Kong's sweet-smelling official emblem, was given to the city by China to mark the 1997 handover. It is located outside a convention center that will host some of the anniversary events and is close to where Chinese President Xi Jinping will be staying.

Around 30 protesters gathered at the "Golden Bauhinia" statue on Wednesday, climbing on its petals and forming chain around its base. The demonstrators inside the flower were the last to be removed and were helped down by firefighters.

The activists held a three-hour sit-in around the sculpture before police began leading them away one-by-one. Prior to the arrests, the demonstrators shouted: "Civil disobedience, no fear!" and "Xi Jinping, can you hear us?"

Student protest leader Joshua Wong (center) was among those arrested on Wednesday evening. Although other protesters were led from the scene, Wong lay down on the ground and was carried from the scene into a police van. He was one of the leaders of the Umbrella Movement in 2014 which saw mass rallies in Hong Kong. Their calls for democratic reforms ultimately failed to win concessions.

Hong Kong's youngest lawmaker and former Umbrella Movement leader Nathan Law (center) was also carried away by police and remained in custody. The 23-year-old was elected to the legislature last year.

President Xi is visiting Hong Kong for celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of Britain's handover of the territory to China on July 1. But there are concerns that Beijing has been violating the "one country, two systems" deal by interfering in politics, education and media.

The handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China took place on July 1, 1997. The territory on China's Pearl River Delta became a British colony in 1842 and was occupied by Japan during World War II. After Hong Kong's return to China, the political situation was described as "one country, two systems."

Divided families, who had been split by the Hong Kong border, had hoped to be reunited after the territory's return to China. But with a daily quota of only 150 mainland Chinese allowed to settle in Hong Kong, many were left disapointed. This photo from 1999 shows mainland Chinese visitors protesting outside Hong Kong's Legal Aid Department after they were denied residency permits.

The residency issue flared up again in April 2002 when Hong Kong began deporting some 4,000 mainland Chinese who had lost legal battles to stay in the territory. These desperate families were evicted from a central park where they had been protesting.

In 2003, the highly contagious SARS virus spread through Hong Kong. The territory was hard hit by the flu-like virus and in March, the WHO declared it a pandemic. This man attended Doctor Tse Yuen-man's funeral in May. Dr. Tse had volunteered to care for SARS patients and had contracted the virus herself. Hong Kong was declared SARS-free in June 2003. Almost 300 people had died of the disease.

China's policy of "one country, two systems" has often created tension. In 2004, on the seventh anniversary of the handover, hundreds of thousands of people protested in Hong Kong, demanding political reform. They were calling for democracy and direct elections for Hong Kong's next leader.

Soaring property prices in Hong Kong forced rents higher. By 2008, it wasn't unusual to see people like Kong Siu-kau living in so-called "cage homes," 15-square-foot (1.4 square meters) wire mesh cubicles, eight of which were usually crammed into one room. Today an estimated 200,000 people call a wire cage, or a single bed in a shared apartment, home.

On the twentieth anniversary of the government's brutal crackdown in Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong residents gathered for a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park. It showed how different Hong Kong is from China, where the massacre of pro-democracy supporters and students on June 4, 1989, is usually only referred to as the June Fourth Incident.

Starting in September 2014, large-scale protests demanding more autonomy rocked Hong Kong for over two months. Beijing had announced that China would decide on the candidates for the 2017 election of Hong Kong's chief executive. The protests were referred to as the Umbrella Revolution, because protesters used umbrellas to fend off pepper spray and tear gas used by police.

Less than a year after the Occupy Central protests ended, China played against Hong Kong in a soccer World Cup qualifiying match on November 17, 2015. The guests did not receive a friendly welcome in Hong Kong. Fans booed when the Chinese national anthem was played and held up posters saying "Hong Kong is not China." The match ended 0-0.

In February 2016, Hong Kong's rough police tactics made headlines again. Authorities tried to remove illegal street vendors from a working-class Hong Kong neighborhood. They sent riot police, who used batons and pepper spray against protesters, and also fired live warning shots into the air. The street clashes were the worst since the Umbrella Revolution in 2014.