Recent protests in Hong Kong have revealed deep divisions within the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR).

However, most Western media coverage has presented a simplistic narrative of idealistic pro-democracy young students pitted against a brutal police force, out-of-touch oligarchs and conniving Beijing puppet masters.

The Occupy Central protests have reached something of an impasse. Robbed of their initial momentum and facing widespread confusion about their leadership and programme, the protests have dwindled drastically from their height in early October.

Last Sunday, a protest march to the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, which represents the Chinese government in Hong Kong, attracted barely 1,000 people.

Anti-Occupy petitions calling on the protests to end have gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures. Yet the tenacity of the hardcore protesters can’t be denied nor the fumbling response to them by Hong Kong’s political leadership.

Western media largely ignores the multi-party political system already in operation in Hong Kong and portrays “pro-Beijing” forces as little more than the pampered rich elite with business ties with mainland China.

In fact, Hong Kong’s largest political party is the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). With nearly 26,000 members spread across the 18 districts of the territory, the DAB is the core of the “patriotic” camp.

It has 13 members in the Legislative Council (Legco) and a small army of 133 district councillors spread across Hong Kong island, Kowloon and the New Territories.

The DAB’s local networks and grassroots organisation are universally recognised as the most effective in Hong Kong. The DAB’s focus on dealing with bread-and-butter issues that affect the daily life of Hong Kong’s citizens is also a major factor in its mass support. In the 2011 local council elections, the DAB won around 24 per cent of votes cast.

When it comes to Legco polls the issue is less clear cut. The self-styled opposition pan-Democrats have charismatic spokespeople but fragile political egos, creating a fractious partisan atmosphere.

The DAB is also not the only patriotic party in the fray – the pro-business Liberal Party and New People’s Party also have a limited presence in the geographical constituencies as does the Federation of Trade Unions, the largest labour alliance closely allied with the DAB.

Legco elections are invariably dominated by big-picture politics, relations with the mainland, the legitimacy of the current constitutional set up and wider concerns about Hong Kong’s autonomy and identity.

Nonetheless the DAB was still able to net 366,000 votes (more than 20 per cent) in the 2012 Legco election, making it the largest single party at the ballot box.

Nixie Lam was elected a DAB district councillor at the age of 29 for Lai Hing constituency in the Tsuen Wan area of the New Territories in the 2011.

Lam fits none of the stereotypes normally found in the Western media. Young, professional and with an overseas education, she casts a critical eye over the core Occupy protesters, who are mostly in their teens and early twenties.

“I was born in 1982, so I am a decade or more away from the core activists’ age. The current education system does not provide enough understanding into the history of pre- and post-colonial periods. Therefore views of Hong Kong and China are not based on a pre- and post-colonial comparison but impressions mainly shaped by their understanding of the current situation contrasted with their vision of what Hong Kong should be like.”

She believes this lack of historical perspective is one factor in the rise of xenophobic currents, which have abused the large numbers of mainland tourists as “locusts,” and who have even paraded with Hong Kong’s former colonial flag.

“I particularly worry about some of the radical anti-China groups. I remember one interview with an activist asking him why he missed colonial times even though he was only a small child during that era.

“The interviewee claimed he brought his first colonial flag during the 2003 Sars virus outbreak, when there was a sharp economic downturn and his parents were talking about how good life was before. So he bought the flag and blamed the Hong Kong government for the economic situation.

“Yet during this time China introduced a simplified visa for mainland residents entering Hong Kong to boost the local tourism and retail industries. This was a major factor allowing Hong Kong’s economy to recover from the 2003 Sars outbreak.”

“Any social problem has its complexity and we should not oversimplify its causes,” Lam says.

While she’s clear that overall Hong Kong’s general progress and prosperity depends on a constructive relationship with the mainland, she accepts that not all of Hong Kong’s citizens enjoy direct benefits.

“For some people, most of their daily life in Hong Kong is not related to China, they do not see any connection between China and Hong Kong. However, I’ve observed an interesting phenomenon. Many of my overseas-educated friends are more patriotic than locally educated people. I believe this is due to the fact that having lived and been educated overseas they have a broader understanding of the relationship between nationality and citizenship.”

Lam lists a host of social grievances behind the protests too, not simply opposition to the proposed nomination process for the election of a new chief executive in 2017.

“Views towards the current protest are split. Unsurprisingly, as with other Hong Kong protests, protesters have various demands, they have different degrees of dissatisfaction with the current situation, ranging from high property prices, poor education policy and even the recent service failure on the MTR [Hong Kong subway]. Social media is flooded with complaints about the unfair distribution of wealth in Hong Kong,” she notes.

However, the immediate source of conflict is over the election for the next chief executive in 2017. After the 1997 return to China, the colonial governor’s post was replaced by a chief executive selected by a committee.

For the first time, 2017 will see the chief executive elected through universal suffrage with all Hong Kong citizens and permanent residents entitled to vote.

However, on August 31, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee ruled that the candidates, likely to be two or three, for the contested election should be approved by a 1,200-seat nominating committee representing a variety of sub-sectors. This is vehemently opposed by the protesters who demand “civic nomination.”

The DAB sees the August 31 decision as a major step forward in Hong Kong’s process of political reform rather than necessarily the final stage.

Lam believes further reform is certainly possible within the proposed framework. “We do see room for improvement about how these 1,200 people are selected, for example the number allocated to each sub-sector. This could be simply solved during the next step in consultation.”

Despite misguided claims, powerfully echoed in Britain, that Beijing has in some way reneged on its agreements, Lam points out that: “Universal suffrage was not mentioned in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, while the central government promised to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive in 2017. Five million registered voters are eligible to vote for the chief executive after the nomination process.”

One by-product of the protests, Lam believes is a greater politicisation on both sides of the divide.

“Political apathy is always a problem in Hong Kong. People are rather practical and see politics as distant from their daily necessities. Most people are not keen on expressing political views or even simply do not care about politics.

“That is also why we have a large number of swing voters in Hong Kong, perhaps around 60 per cent. However, we do see increasing discussion of social matters and political views in different areas, especially in the recent Occupy and Anti-Occupy movement. Many swing voters are expressing their views.”

Lam acknowledges that the Hong Kong government needs to address the underlying social grievances, especially alienation among the young.

“As the biggest political party in Hong, the DAB has a very good network where we can listen to people and their views. We see room for improvement especially with young people. There are several discussions about this, such as the possibility of creating an innovation and technology bureau or providing more support to youngsters in terms of housing,” she says.

Divisions in Hong Kong will not be healed easily or soon but Lam believes the DAB’s focus on dialogue within Hong Kong and building a constructive relationship with the rest of China is the only way forward.