Demonstrators, many wearing red and waving Chinese flags, braved wilting heat to participate in the rally on Sunday afternoon, which was organised by a pro-Beijing group to outdo a July 1 pro-democracy march and undermine the Occupy Central movement, which has threatened to cripple the central business district of Asia’s biggest financial centre if China’s proposal to elect Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017 falls short of international standards.

The organisers of the march, the Alliance for Peace and Democracy, said more than 190,000 people had participated on Sunday.

Hong Kong police said 111,800 people participated in the march, more than the 98,600 they recorded for the July 1 demonstration. An independent count by Hong Kong University put the maximum number of participants on Sunday at 88,000, compared with 172,000 on July 1.

A petition circulated by the Alliance also amassed 1.5 million signatures, including those of Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying and former chief Tung Chee-hwa, outnumbering an Occupy Central referendum of 800,000 in June.

Chinese state media, which had been silent on the previous Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, hailed Sunday’s march as “the majority breaking their silence”.

Business associations have long warned that a protest movement that disrupted Hong Kong’s Central district would harm the city’s image and its economy, while anti-Occupy Central campaigners have appealed to the pragmatism of some Hong Kongers, who may support democracy but also just want their lives and work to continue unimpeded.

But many questioned the legitimacy of Sunday’s demonstrators, with numerous local Hong Kong media outlets reporting that many participants had been paid to take buses in from nearby cities like Shenzhen in mainland China and were unable to explain what they were protesting about. Other reports claimed demonstrators were paid a small stipend for food and transport.

Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said even though the movement was “well orchestrated”, it was significant because it was the first time pro-Beijing elements had felt the need to respond to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movements.

“In spite of the bogus nature of the demonstration, this was a very important occasion in Hong Kong politics,” Dr Lam said. “This is upping the ante, they have turned on the full-fledged propaganda warfare.

“Beijing is trying to synthesise Hong Kong to [make] it more like the mainland to ensure it will not become a base of subversion against the socialist motherland.”

Hong Kong, as a specially administered region, has retained much of the autonomy and civil liberties enjoyed under British rule since it was handed back to Chinese control in 1997, though there has been growing anxiety over Beijing's influence eroding those freedoms.

Occupy Central leaders have pledged to bring Hong Kong’s Central district to a standstill with a sit-in should the national legislature insist on a plan for nominating the chief executive that bars candidates unacceptable to Beijing. That plan could be set in motion as soon as the end of this month, when China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress, issues its guidelines to the Hong Kong government on new election rules.

"We can't be optimistic at all - the pro-Beijing camp will control the entire list of candidates," Joseph Cheng, a convener of democratic parties supporting Occupy Central, told the Wall Street Journal.