Thousands returned to occupy Hong Kong’s Central district Friday after the government backed out of talks and threatened to break up the demonstrations.
Protesters want the freedom to select their own candidates rather than choosing from a slate handpicked by Beijing. They’re also asking for Hong Kong’s administrator, Leung Chun-ying, to resign.
Hong Kong is considered a “special administrative region” of the People’s Republic of China, meaning it has different rules than the rest of the country. Actually, China maintains numerous jurisdictions with varying rules. But Hong Kong is special. Formerly occupied by the British, China regained control of the island and its mainland territory in 1997 and planned a smooth, deliberate transition over 50 years. The protesters maintain that Beijing had, from the beginning, promised to maintain democratic principles. Actually, British rule wasn’t so democratic, either. Nonetheless, the people of the fragrant island want more.
The location of the protests is key. Hong Kong has a diverse population, though mostly Chinese, but Central is where all the bankers and Europeans work and play. It’s where you would go to see white faces and expensive cars, and its pristine streets are littered with towering skyscrapers. Central is very much the Wall Street (with the rest of Manhattan dropped on top) of Hong Kong, and this movement, although indigenous, seems to resemble Occupy in that regard.
Hong Kong protesters dig in for the long haul |
Hundreds of activists who camped overnight at major protest sites joined by more on Saturday. |
Hundreds of student activists camped overnight in Hong Kong as the protesters tried to re-gather momentum after the government called off talks aimed at defusing unrest in the global financial hub.
The protest movement suffered a noticeable dip in support over the past week, but strong crowds of over ten thousand returned on Friday evening for a series of rallies in the former British colony.
By Saturday afternoon many protesters were coming back again to join those who had camped overnight.
"Hong Kong is my home, we are fighting for Hong Kong's future, our future," Lawrence Chan, a media studies student who has participated in the protests from the outset, told the Reuters news agency.
Mainlanders assess Hong Kong protests
Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said on Thursday that the government had cancelled scheduled talks as the students’ persistent calls to escalate action had "severely undermined" the grounds for dialogue.
At Friday's rallies, protest leaders urged demonstrators to prepare for a protracted struggle instead of expanding the protests geographically. The protests have led to some resentment among the public due to the resulting traffic jams and loss of business.
Tens of thousands of people have occupied the semiautonomous Chinese city's streets in the past two weeks to protest China's restrictions on the city's first-ever direct elections for its leader, promised for 2017.
Beijing said a 1,200-member committee stacked with pro-government elites should nominate two or three leadership candidates before the public votes. Protesters say this gives them no real choice and do not amount to genuine democracy.
It was unclear how long Hong Kong authorities will tolerate the occupation or how the standoff might be resolved. For now, however, the police presence remains thin with authorities seemingly reluctant to risk fresh flare-ups.
Riot police had cracked down on protesters massing near the government headquarters on September 28, but the authorities has since taken a softer line.
The 'Occupy Central' protests, an idea conceived over a year ago referring to the Central business district, have presented Beijing with one of its biggest political challenges since it crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital in 1989
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