Thousands of students braved sweltering heat in Hong Kong yesterday to demand greater democracy as they launched a week-long boycott of classes, underscoring a restive younger generation’s determination to challenge the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Dressed in white and wearing yellow ribbons, students from more than 20 universities and colleges packed into the grounds of picturesque, bay-side Chinese University where they were greeted by banners that said: “The boycott must happen. Disobey and grasp your destiny.”