HONG KONG, (Reuters) – Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong agreed with the city’s government late yesterday to start formal talks later this week to address concerns that have brought tens of thousands of people onto the city’s streets.
The student-led demonstrations have calmed since clashes with police over a week ago, and the number of protesters has fallen since violent scuffles broke out at the weekend between demonstrators and pro-Beijing opponents.
Yesterday a few hundred protesters remained camped out on the roads leading into the city’s main government and business districts, still blocking traffic and causing some of the city’s schools to close.
The protesters have demanded that the city’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying step down and that China allow Hong Kong people the right to vote for a leader of their choice in 2017 elections. China wants to select candidates for the election and Leung, appointed by China, has ignored calls to step down.
“We have confirmed that we will hold the first round of meetings on Friday at 4 p.m.,” Lau Kong-wah, the government’s undersecretary of constitutional and mainland affairs, said after a discussion with student representatives yesterday.
The talks would focus on “the basis for political development and the legal implementations of these political reforms”, he said, referring to plans for the 2017 election of the Chief Executive, Hong Kong’s leader.
Student leader Lester Shum confirmed that the students would take part as a way to convey their message to senior government leaders, but said he was “angry and disappointed” that the talks were expected to be limited in scope.
The protests would continue until “practical measures (have) been forged between the government and the people”, he said. Any violence or attempts to clear the students would affect the talks, he said.
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.
