Demonstrators gather in Hong Kong, on Oct. 10, 2014.
Hong Kong’s government “should be held responsible,” the Hong Kong Federation of Students and activist group Scholarism said late yesterday in an open letter on the federation’s Facebook page. The students said they don’t want a “color revolution,” a term Chinese state media use for uprisings such as the so-called Arab Spring.
Activists pressing for freer elections and Hong Kong’s government are locked in the city’s worst political crisis since China regained the
former British colony in 1997. The city’s No. 2 official, Carrie Lam, said yesterday that the government can’t talk with the students unless they recognize the legal framework China laid down for a 2017 vote in the city.
China’s official People’s Daily newspaper has backed Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and warned Oct. 1 that the consequences of the street occupations could be “unimaginable” if they dragged on. In 1989, the Chinese government cracked down to end student protests centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Demonstrators walk past the message wall near the Central Government Offices in Hong... Read More
‘One Country’
The students’ letter was posted as protesters continued street occupations that have paralyzed parts of the city. Hundreds of pitched tents signal the activists’ grip on their stronghold in the Admiralty district, the home to the government’s headquarters and the Legislative Council.“The occupy movement in Hong Kong is not a color revolution, it is Hong Kong people demanding democracy,” the student organizations said. “We sincerely respect ‘one country, two systems,’” they said, referring to Hong Kong being part of China while having different rules.
Lam yesterday expressed “disappointment and helplessness” over the collapse of talks with the city’s students, according to the South China Morning Post. The government canceled planned negotiations with the protesters on Thursday after leaders of the movement called supporters back into the streets.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Oct. 10 in Germany that the central government’s policy toward Hong Kong hasn’t changed and will not change. Lam said that any discussions with students must be based on the legal framework laid out by the National People’s Congress. Her comments in the Chinese city of Guangzhou were broadcast on Cable TV.
Lester Shum, vice secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, from left,... Read More
The protest site in Admiralty yesterday had everything from origami lessons to movies and documentaries screened outdoors on walls. Families ate meals on makeshift tables. Dozens of students worked into the night in a “self-study corner.” One group of speakers were democracy activists from Macau, who said they had a tougher task than their counterparts in Hong Kong.
Joshua Wong
Student leader Joshua Wong, 17, the founder of a group called Scholarism, had urged a show of strength to maintain pressure on the government. Government official Lam suspended talks scheduled for Oct. 10 after student leaders, pro-democracy politicians and the activist group Occupy Central with Love and Peace joined forces to call for a “wave of new civil disobedience.”The number of protesters on the streets, which had dropped to hundreds from demonstrators’ estimates of as many as 200,000 at a peak, picked up again on Oct. 10 as the government and students blamed each other for the aborted talks.
“What the students have done is to bring more people to support them, which will bring them more chances of success at the table,” Martin Lee, 76, founder of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party and a protest supporter, said by phone yesterday.
Still, while sites in Admiralty and Mong Kok may together have attracted as many as thousands of people yesterday, crowds are thinner that at earlier stages of the demonstrations.
Pepper Spray
“I’m here because Joshua said we should stay here for a long time,” said Stormy Lo, 22, after he and his girlfriend pitched a tent near government offices. “I will be here for this weekend at least,” Lo said, adding that he was among those previously pepper-sprayed during clashes with police.On the government side, Lam remains in Guangzhou today for a development and trade forum, according to a government statement. Leung will be there today and Oct. 13.
In Admiralty, Saxon Lam, 23, a finance and economics student, said that he’d already been camping out since Sept. 23. “I will be here for as long as the movement requires me to,” he said. Some other protesters were feeling the strain. Agnes Chow Ting, 17, stepped down as a spokeswoman for Scholarism after two and a half years, citing exhaustion, saying that she’s “unable to shoulder such a great burden,” in a post yesterday on Scholarism’s Facebook page.
In another sign of tensions in the city, the newspaper Apple Daily, which is owned by pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, said on its website late yesterday that a truck was parked outside its headquarters in Tseung Kwan O, blocking access and threatening to prevent the newspaper being distributed.
Police arrested 11 people for cyber attacks and found others inciting more attacks via social media, Hui Chun-tak, Hong Kong’s chief superintendent, said at a briefing yesterday.
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