Hong Kong | Gov’t to start clearing city-center demonstrators

A protester secures a rolled up sleeping mat as she stands next to rows of tents outside the Central Government Offices in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s government may clear pro-democracy protesters today from part of the city-center area that they occupy, as public support for the student-led movement ebbs after almost two months of demonstrations.
Police will help court bailiffs to enforce a civil injunction against protesters blocking entrance into the Citic Tower in the Admiralty district, according to a press release posted on the government’s website yesterday. The court order doesn’t cover the main tent city the protesters have set up.
Attempts to impede the bailiffs may render protesters liable to charges of criminal contempt of court and police will take “resolute action” against violence, the government said. The statement makes no mention of plans to clear protesters in the Mong Kok district across the harbor.
Protesters’ options are shrinking after crowds dwindled, attempts to negotiate failed and Hong Kong’s High Court issued injunctions for the removal of barricades at some sites. The demonstrations, the largest since China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, were sparked by the mainland government’s decision to screen candidates through a committee for the city’s leadership election in 2017.
The protesters are losing public support. About 67.4 percent of people surveyed said the activists should give up their street occupation immediately, the poll conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong from Nov. 5 to Nov. 11 showed. Those against the movement rose to 43.5 percent from 35.5 percent in October.
Younger people and those who are more highly educated are “more likely” to support the movement, the university said. The university surveyed 1,030 Cantonese-speaking residents aged 15 or above, it said.
Protesters’ options are shrinking after crowds dwindled, attempts to negotiate failed and Hong Kong’s High Court issued injunctions for the removal of barricades.
“Protesters surely have the right to express their discontent against Beijing’s ruling,” Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang wrote in his blog late Sunday. “But to deny a proposal that enables several million Hong Kong residents to vote for the next chief executive also contradicts the meaning of democracy. Have the protesters thought about the rights of other people?”
High Court Chief Judge Andrew Cheung Kui-nung ruled last week that bailiffs can remove obstructions at two protest sites in Mong Kok on the north side of Victoria Harbor. The court on Nov. 15 dismissed an appeal against the injunction.

four more student protesters barred from beijing

At least four other student protesters have been barred from travelling to the mainland since the Occupy Central demonstrations began, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. The failed trips came to light after three representatives from the Federation of Students – one of the groups leading Occupy – on Saturday were barred from boarding just hours before they were to fly to Beijing, where they planned to press their demands for genuine universal suffrage. According to the paper, the three were seeking to meet central government officials in the Chinese capital to discuss Hong Kong’s election reform. Nathan Law Kwun-chung, one of the three, said yesterday morning on a HK talk show that at least four to five other students had been denied entry to mainland China since the Occupy protests kicked off on September 28, the SCMP stated. The federation’s secretary-general, Alex Chow Yong-kang, also said that some other students had applied for a home visit return permit, a visa for Hongkongers heading to the mainland, but their applications were rejected. Vinicy Chan and Natasha Khan , Bloomberg