Protests in Hong Kong seemed to be losing some momentum after crowds, opposed to the Occupy Central movement, made their presence felt on Friday, setting the stage for the government’s possible reassertion in the streets of one of Asia’s premier financial centres.
Tense stand-off
There were early signs of violence as anti-Occupy forces stormed the Mongkok area, one of the strongholds of the movement, leading to a tense stand-off that was barely contained by the police. Crowds opposed to the assemblage also thronged two other prime protest locations — Causeway Bay, a top shopping district; and Admiralty, where the office of Hong Kong’s Chief Executive (CE) Leung Chun-ying is located.
The assertion by the anti-Occupy forces followed signals that the Occupy Central Movement is flagging or, at least, may have entered review mode. Student protesters dropped one of their core demands — seeking Mr. Leung’s resignation — and agreed for talks.
An open letter by the Federation of Students was focused on the political aspect of the agitation — open nomination of candidates for the 2017 elections, rather than having contestants vetted by the Chinese authorities, for the CE’s post.
On Thursday night, Mr. Leung rejected the midnight ultimatum, given by the protesters, for his resignation. While he rejected the maximalist demand of the protesters, Mr. Leung kept open the door for a dialogue on other issues, nominating his deputy, Lam Woon-kwong, for the job.
Mr. Lam prefaced talks with an appeal that protesters should move their demonstrations to public parks away from the streets now that a “breakthrough” had been achieved.
“The best means is negotiation, not confrontation.” he said, refusing to compare the existing situation with the Tiananmen Square incident of June 1989, when tanks were moved in, as part of a mega-crackdown.
The prospects for the dialogue had brightened early on Friday, but it was unclear what impact the latest round of clashes later in the evening would have on the proposed talks and whether Occupy Central’s supporters would manage to regroup.
‘Illegal gatherings’
Nevertheless, the guidelines for the dialogue, from the government’s perspective, have been clarified. The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese government, was explicit in stating in a commentary on Friday that the “illegal gatherings of the Occupy Central movement” are doomed to fail as “they challenge China’s supreme power organ and Hong Kong citizens’ democratic rights”.
It stressed that the protesters are attempting to “force the central authorities to change the decision made by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, on Hong Kong’s electoral system”.
“There is no room to make concessions on issues of important principles,” asserted the commentary. The daily made it plain that Hong Kong “is directly under the jurisdiction of the central government rather than a State or an independent political entity”.
The apparent reversal that the protesters seemed to have suffered also followed resentment among sections of the business community, as well as ordinary citizenry, inconvenienced by the chaos that that followed the Occupy Central movement.
Representatives of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) point out that retail as well food and beverages business has taken a hit, including a 70 per cent drop in restaurant bookings.
