Pro-democracy demonstrators stand behind umbrellas during a protest in the Admiralty area
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters yesterday evening were marking a month since police used tear gas in a failed attempt to disperse them, as leaders debate whether to reopen discussions with the government.
Protesters were being urged to turn up wearing goggles, face masks and yellow umbrellas to mark a moment of silence at 5:57 p.m. local time, when police shot the first of 87 tear-gas cannisters in the Admiralty district on Sept. 28, according to a posting on the Facebook page of Occupy Central with Love and Peace, one of the movement’s leading groups.
Protesters are debating their next move after a vote on the movement’s direction was shelved over the weekend. Talks between the government and student leaders on Oct. 21 failed to yield an immediate solution, with the city’s No. 2 official offering to send China a report reflecting the demands of the demonstrators.
“We are now entering the second half of this movement,” Joshua Wong, leader of another student-protest faction, Scholarism, said Monday night. “Only when we know details of the report, will we have a chance for a compromise.”
Some people are concerned that the protests, the biggest challenge to Chinese sovereignty in Hong Kong, may be leading China to withhold approval of a trading link between the city and Shanghai after speculation that it would start this month.
The Chinese government is “very supportive of the program, which is important for Hong Kong’s economic development and our country’s financial development,” the city’s leader Leung Chun-ying told reporters yesterday.
“I will continue to work on the program. Hopefully the connect program can start as soon as possible,” Leung said.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.’s Chief Executive Officer Charles Li said on Sunday he won’t be surprised if the protests were among factors behind the wait for regulatory approval for the link.
Leung’s approval rating has dropped to a record low, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday, citing a poll by the Chinese University. On a scale of 0 to 100, Leung scored 38.6 in the survey, the newspaper said.
Pro-democracy lawmakers, rather than students, should lead any further talks with the government, said Alex Chow, the secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. This way, student leaders can focus on talking to the protesters and understand what they want, Chow said.
Chow had apologized Sunday for the cancellation of the referendum, saying leaders had failed to recognize differences and that they needed to do more work before holding a vote.
The report offered by the government and multiparty talks for reform of the 2017 election were the items on the shelved poll.
“They were not clear on what they’re going to do with the result of the vote,” said Jack Lee, 25, a protester who’s camped out at Admiralty. “I can’t really see the point and the topics of the vote were repetitive,” he said.
“Camping out here like this is our last resort; it’s important we get something out of this whole thing to give this movement momentum,” Lee said.
China has shown no signs of budging in the face of the protests. The Hong Kong government has said civic nomination is against the Basic Law, the city’s constitution, which provides for a 1,200-person nominating committee to screen candidates.
Leung has said that method of selecting the members of the committee may be open for discussion.
Protesters last month seized roads and erected barriers at two other areas to demand China reverse its decision.
High Court judge Thomas Au Monday extended three interim civil injunctions awarding plaintiffs the right to remove barricades and preventing protesters from interfering with their removal, pending a final written decision.
Two applications for injunctions were filed by an association of taxi drivers and a minibus company in Mong Kok where protesters have sealed streets. A third was filed by a property company controlled by Citic Ltd. at the main site in Admiralty.
Still, protesters persist.
“Dispersing or retreating now is not an option as we have not achieved anything since the movement started,” said hotel worker Gordon Lee, 24.
hk protesters suggest talks with beijing
Student democracy activists who have occupied Hong Kong streets for a month suggested yesterday that direct negotiations with senior Chinese Communist Party officials could be a way to end their standoff with the local government.
The protest leaders said they want the Hong Kong government to convey their demands for greater democracy to Beijing. They issued an open letter to Hong Kong’s No. 2 official after the students and the government held talks last week that were mostly fruitless.
One of the student protest leaders, Alex Chow, said the Hong Kong government should ask Chinese Premier Li Keqiang “to have dialogue with the students and Hong Kong people directly, so that Hong Kong people and students can express their views.”
It’s unclear how the request would be received, given that Beijing officials have called the street protests illegal and repeatedly blamed unspecified foreign forces for instigating them. Clement Tan and Choong En Han , Bloomberg
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