HONG KONG| Occupy Central leaders plan Oct. 1 ‘democracy banquet’

Benny Tai Yiu-ting, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong and co-founder of activist group Occupy Central with Love and Peace

Organizers of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement are inviting people to join a “democracy banquet” on the Oct. 1 holiday to fight for broader democratic rights in the city.
People who support democracy are welcome to attend the “banquet” or just to watch it, Benny Tai, a professor at The University of Hong Kong and co-founder of the Occupy Central movement, said in a Facebook post Tuesday. The first day of October is China’s National Day, marking the start of the Communist Party’s rule in 1949.
“While others celebrate the big day for the country, we will also serve a banquet in Central to push for Hong Kong’s democracy,” Tai said in the post.
Tai and other leaders of the movement have threatened sit-in protests in the city’s financial district after China said last month that candidates for the 2017 leadership election in Hong Kong must be vetted by a committee. Occupy Central applied to the police for a gathering of as many as 50,000 people at Chater Garden on Oct. 1, the Apple Daily reported yesterday, citing the organizers.
In the Facebook posting, Occupy Central asked people who plan to join the meeting to bring food, drinks, spare batteries for phones, sleeping bags, and a change of clothes. The movement also applied for permits for rallies on Chater Road for Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, Apple Daily said.
Chater Garden and Chater Road are in the city’s business district, close to the Asian headquarters of HSBC Holdings Plc and the office of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man.
Thousands of university students boycotted classes this week to express dissatisfaction with China’s ruling. Opposition lawmakers, student groups and Occupy Central leaders have said the vetting committee will be packed with legislators and business executives favoring Beijing.
Lawmakers are expected to vote on the electoral reforms next year. Opposition to the proposal is fueling the risk of China canceling the popular election, the city’s top official, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, said Sept. 14. Fox Hu, Bloomberg