Hong Kong officials have released details of long-awaited electoral blueprint for selecting the city's next leader.  The plan offers no concessions to pro-democracy activists who led massive protests in the city last year.

The street-blocking demonstrations were the greatest challenges to Beijing’s Communist Party rule since the former British colony returned to Chinese control in 1997.  But the plan follows with guidelines set forth by the Beijing government that candidates for the 2017 election will be screened and approved by a largely pro-Beijing nominating committee.

Unlike the later months of 2014 when thousands of pro-democracy protesters demanded universal sufferage, hundreds of pro-government demonstrators waved Chinese flags outside the Hong Kong Legislative Council, where the proposal was announced.  A much smaller group criticized the proposal as undemocratic.

It’s not clear if the pro-democracy side can pull together large-scale protests like they did last year.  Hong Kong’s next elections are in 2017.