A student pro-democracy protester sleeps on the street near government headquarters on Sunday. Associated Press HONG KONG—With the clock ticking as a government ultimatum to clear the streets nears, pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong Sunday began dismantling one of three protest sites as the police appeared to stick with a strategy of avoiding force to clear demonstrators. Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying late Saturday warned that the government and police have the determination “to take all necessary actions to restore social order,” saying he wants major roads reopened by Monday, the beginning of the workweek. The government, however, said Sunday it remained opened to talks if the students were willing to take part. (Read The Wall Street Journal’s live blog on the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.) On Sunday, some students and other protesters rallying in Causeway Bay, the city’s top shopping district, began to pack up to move to the main site of the protests—the government headquarters in Admiralty. Others, however, are likely to stay. Despite the threats of a crackdown, the Chinese government remains reluctant to see the tensions escalating further, according to a person familiar with the Hong Kong government’s thinking. “Beijing has sent a line: no excessive force, and that still stands,” the person said. The city has since Sunday last week been paralyzed by thousands of protesters who first gathered around the government headquarters in downtown Hong Kong Friday, Sept. 26, but the crowds spread to Causeway Bay and Mong Kok and grew after the police fired 87 canisters of tear gas to break up the rally—to much criticism. Protest supporters packed up water and other supplies Sunday morning on a barricaded street in Hong Kongs Causeway Bay shopping area. Juro Osawa/The Wall Street Journal In the early hours Sunday, the police used pepper spray to bring some of the sporadic scuffles between pro and anti-occupy forces in Mong Kok, a lower-income residential and shopping district, under control. Major downtown thoroughfares and two major shopping areas remain blocked, disrupting road traffic and closing schools. Mr. Leung said in a televised speech that the “most pressing task” is to reopen access to the government offices so that government employees could return to work on Monday. The government shut its headquarters on Friday as protesters surrounded the site, preventing access. “There should be no more blocking of carriageways in Wan Chai and Central and Western districts so that classes could resume on Monday,” Mr. Leung said, referring to locations on Hong Kong Island. One of the student groups leading the protests said late Saturday they would consider restarting talks with the government under certain conditions, but said the demonstrators won’t back down. The three groups organizing the protests—the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Scholarism, and Occupy Central—are meeting to discuss the strategy for Sunday, Chris Lo, secretary of Occupy Central, said. Joshua Wong, who heads the student group Scholarism, said Sunday there was no need for protesters to leave Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. He didn’t elaborate. The Hong Kong Federation of Students said Sunday it won’t end protests as no progress has yet been made on political reform and because the police have yet to explain their stance on when attacks broke out in Mong Kok on Friday. Protesters remain in three main areas—Admiralty, the location of the government headquarters, Causeway Bay, a popular shopping district, and Mong Kok, a working-class neighborhood. But as weary protesters enter their 10th day of rallies, crowds had significantly thinned in all protest areas. The protest site at Causeway Bay, where just dozens of demonstrators remained Sunday morning, was being dismantled in case protesters needed to make a quick exit. Demonstrators there said they had jointly taken the decision to move resources to support protesters in Admiralty who requested additional supplies. “We’re organizing some of our supplies, trying to move some of our extra materials like water and masks to Admiralty, because Admiralty is where the heart of our movement is,” said Kevin Ko, an insurance agent who has participated in the protests for the past week and was at Causeway Bay Sunday morning. “We’re not closing shop here. We’ll stay until the very last moment until tear gas falls upon us,” he said, noting there was no leadership overseeing the logistics efforts behind the protests. Clashes between protesters and the police have continued throughout the weekend in Mong Kok, where angry crowds had attacked protesters who had occupied the area. Police had arrested dozens people in the area for fighting and illegal gathering, some of whom were suspected of having links to organized crime organizations known as Triads. “Frankly, I haven’t been able to sleep well,” Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang wrote on his blog Sunday, reflecting his concerns that the situation may spin out of control. Central Casting The main characters in the tussle over Hong Kong democracy He said his worries have intensified after the violent clashes broke out between protesters and anti-Occupy demonstrators on Friday. “I’m worried that we will be on the verge of more serious incidents if this continues.” Mr. Tsang is heading to the U.S. on later Sunday to attend an annual meeting at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He said he had considered canceling the trip. “But at the end, we decided we need to seize the opportunity and explain the situation in Hong Kong directly to those abroad who care about Hong Kong and to clarify any unnecessary misunderstandings,” he said. Meanwhile, senior police officers are wary of warnings by Mr. Leung that the police will deploy heavy force if the protesters don’t allow the city return to normal, according to a person familiar with the police operation. “He may urge the police to try but it is an almost impossible job,” said the person. “There may be some danger for police on the front line and that is why they are reluctant to do something that could harm them.” The police are sticking with a tactic of allowing students to make the first move to break the impasse. See 360 Degree Views From Protest Sites Admiralty, mid-protest. Henry Williams/The Wall Street Journal “The first move you make is to observe whether the students move and allow people go to work,” the person said. “Whether they can perform that I do not know.” In Admiralty—the epicenter of the protests—the mood among protesters remains upbeat and defiant, even though the crowds had thinned significantly by Sunday morning. While the crowds swelled as the day went on, some say the task of occupying key roads around the edges of the city’s financial district is becoming a strain.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 08:07:24 +0000
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