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 Student-led protesters are calling for free elections in the
former British trading post, but China insists on screening
candidates first. Hong Kong's Beijing-backed leader, Leung
Chun-ying, has said the city's government was unwilling to
compromise on China's restrictions.
The talks between student representatives and senior city government
officials, scheduled for Tuesday evening, may yield small
confidence-building measures and an agreement to continue the
dialogue, but are unlikely to bridge the chasm between the two sides
or end the demonstrations.
"I don't expect much from tomorrow's meeting, but I still hold some
hope for the talks," said protester Woody Wong, a 21-year-old
student who camped overnight on Nathan Road, the main thoroughfare
in the densely populated Mong Kok district.
"I will keep doing this until the government listens."
Dozens of people were injured in two nights of clashes over the
weekend in Mong Kok, including 22 police, media and police said.
Four people were arrested for assault, police said.
The area was calm on Monday although scores of protesters remained
on the streets.
Tuesday's talks, which will be broadcast live, offer a rare
opportunity to try to ease the worst political crisis in Hong Kong
since Britain handed the free-wheeling city back to China in 1997.
The government called off talks scheduled earlier this month after
the students called for the protests to expand.
"So far we've seen no hope that they will reach some agreement in
the coming week because both sides have different expectations of
the dialogue," said James Sung, a political analyst at City
University of Hong Kong.
POSSIBLE WIGGLE ROOM
The Hong Kong government's scope for negotiation is severely limited
by the ruling Communist Party in Beijing, which at the end of August
announced the parameters for the 2017 election of Hong Kong's leader
that sparked the protests.
The government may have some wiggle room in determining how the
committee that selects candidates for Hong Kong's leadership
election is picked, Sung said. The committee is now expected to be
stacked with Beijing loyalists, anointing only candidates palatable
to China's Communist Party.
"There is some flexibility within the framework, but the problem is
whether or not the students will accept it," said Sung. "No one
knows because the students are all idealistic."
Leung, who has rejected calls by protesters to quit, said on Sunday
that more time was needed to broker what he hoped would be a
non-violent end to the upheaval.
"To work out a solution, to put an end to this problem, we need
time. We need time to talk to the people, particularly young
students," he told Hong Kong's ATV Television. "What I want is to
see a peaceful and a meaningful end to this problem."
Hong Kong's 28,000-strong police force has been struggling to
contain the movement. Over the weekend, demonstrators in Mong Kok
squared off against police in late-night confrontations, surging
forward to stake their claim to an intersection.
Scores of riot police smashed batons at a wall of umbrellas that
protesters raised to defend themselves. Scuffles erupted amid shouts
and hurled insults.
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On Sunday night, crowds again built up and protesters stockpiled
safety equipment such as helmets. Some wore homemade forearm shields
made out of foam pads to parry baton blows. But unlike the
previous two nights, there were no clashes.
'CRIMINAL ACTS' ON COMPUTER
Hong Kong is ruled under a "one country, two systems" formula that
allows it wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal
suffrage as an eventual goal. But Beijing is wary about copycat
demands for reform on the mainland.
Leung appears hamstrung, unable to compromise because of the message
that would send to people on the mainland, while using more force
would likely only galvanize the protests.
Hong Kong Security Chief Lai Tung-kwok said some clashes in recent
days had been initiated by activists affiliated to "radical
organizations which have been active in conspiring, planning and
charging violent acts".
In addition to the four arrested for assault, police on Sunday
announced the arrest of a man suspected of inciting others "on an
online forum to join the unlawful assembly in Mong Kok, to charge at
police and to paralyze the railways".
The arrest of the 23-year-old man for "access to (a) computer with
criminal or dishonest intent" appeared to be the first of its kind
since the demonstrations began.
Mobile phone chat groups and social media sites like Facebook have
been major platforms for protest chatter, including calls for action
by demonstration leaders.
Besides Mong Kok, about 1,000 protesters are camped out at the
headquarters of the civil disobedience "Occupy" movement on Hong
Kong Island in a sea of tents on an eight-lane highway beneath
skyscrapers close to government headquarters.
Hong Kong came up in weekend talks between U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi in Boston. A
State Department official said it was discussed as part of candid
exchanges on human rights. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Yang
told Kerry Hong Kong was an internal affair.
(Additional reporting by Elzio Barreto, Yimou Lee, Clare Jim, Irene
Jay Liu, Twinnie Siu and Diana Chan and Benjamin Kang Lim in
Beijing; Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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