Hong Kong protests appear to be headed into a smaller but durable holding pattern
Protesters try to memorialize Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution before it disappears
(about 9 hours later)
HONG KONG — A week of tumultuous pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong shifted into a stalemate atmosphere Monday as the ranks of demonstrators thinned and some workers returned to offices previously barricaded by the protesters. Security forces stayed back even after a deadline for protesters to clear the streets.
HONG KONG — As the jam-packed crowds fade — along with the threat of tear gas and electric night vigils — some in Hong Kong are trying to save pieces of their Umbrella Revolution before it disappears.
The main occupation sites were intact, but anxiety and disagreements were evident among protesters: whether to keep the widespread demonstrations or consolidate their forces at the main encampment in front of government headquarters.
For more than a week, the pro-democracy protests have paralyzed parts of the city and galvanized residents hoping to wrest true voting rights from their Communist rulers in Beijing. And a group of diehard demonstrators is likely to continue for days even if the massive crowds don’t.
Meanwhile, it appeared that authorities might tolerate a reduced protest as long as key buildings are not blocked.
But by Monday, some were already working to salvage pieces of the movement — both symbolic and literal — before the protest dies out altogether.
In one tension-easing concession, civil servants working at Hong Kong’s main government building were allowed to enter the complex. A thin pathway was cleared by the demonstrators, whose numbers were just a fraction of the tens of thousands in previous days.
College student Jason Wu, 20, spent the afternoon methodically snapping pictures at the main demonstration site by the government’s headquarters.
The apparent cooling of the showdown — at least for the moment — was welcomed by traders in one of Asia’s financial hubs. Hong Kong’s stock market closed with its biggest daily gain in more than a month. The Hang Seng index finished up 1.1 percent, the best one-day rise since Sept. 3.
“Nothing like this has ever happened in Hong Kong before,” he said. “We must remember it.”
But the essence of the unrest remains unresolved.
All week long Wu had reluctantly promised his parents not to attend the night-time protests for fear of violent police crackdowns. So when he read online that Hong Kong historians and academics were urging the public to save mementoes for posterity, he decided to act.
Protesters are seeking greater political autonomy from Beijing, including having Chinese authorities reverse a decision to vet Hong Kong candidates in 2017 elections. Officials have offered talks on possible political reforms, but seem unwilling to bend to the protesters’ demands.
The photos — of banners, quirky protest art, impassioned screeds taped onto government offices — were his way of contributing to the cause in its last days, he said.
The Chinese government — which took control of the former British colony in 1997 — fears yielding ground in Hong Kong could inspire dissent elsewhere.
“I want the next generation to know everything that was said here, what people stood up and fought for,” he said.
The current stalemate, if it lasts, provides some breathing room for both sides after days of threats, scuffles and brinksmanship that threatened to escalate the tensions and violence. Although the protest crowds are likely to dwindle, a core group of protesters has vowed to remain.
By Monday night, crowds had thinned noticeably at several protest sites, though protest organizers urged people to stay as they continued negotiations for a meeting with authorities where they could discuss demands for democratic reform.
Such an occupation could also turn more public sentiment against the students’ cause. And, at the same time, it would bring into question how long Beijing would tolerate such public defiance of its authority.
Close to midnight, the Hong Kong Federation of Students announced those talks would likely happen later in the week. It’s unclear what will emerge from the process, but the continued dialogue suggests that authorities won’t sweep demonstrators off the streets, as feared throughout most of the week of protest.
On Sunday, Hong Kong’s leader, Leung Chun-ying, said he would take “all actions necessary” to make sure government workers could return to work, which some saw as an ultimatum for protesters to get off the street or risk facing a police sweep.
By Monday, in any case, some from the movement were recording songs composed during the protest. Various documentary makers put out requests for archival footage.
The warning only forced some protesters to dig in. Nicholas Chan, 25, said he rushed to the occupation outside the main government office as soon as he heard some protesters were walking away or retreating to other sites, viewing them as safer locations.
A flier circulating widely advertised a phone number protesters could call to record their thoughts, writings and most vivid memories from the past few days.
“I’m here because I want to see for myself just how far police will go if all we do is sit here peacefully,” Chan said.
And someone — fearing the effects of rain, wind and time — had wrapped large sheets of plastic wrap around parts of a wall of hand written Post-it notes from the past week.
Student leaders said they had preliminary discussions with government officials over to offer for talks with Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s highest-ranking civil servant. But they said there were many disagreements as well.
Art student Queenie Chan, 25, spent two hours sketching a scene of the waning protest.
At another protest site in Mong Kok, a working-class neighborhood, attackers, including some suspected of being members of criminal gangs known as triads, had assaulted largely peaceful protesters in recent days. In response to the violence, some called for a retreat to the main protest site outside government headquarters.
As she worked combining ink with watercolors, Chan recalled how she first got wind of the protests while on vacation abroad and rushed back.
Throughout the protest sites, many brace for a crackdown that had yet to come. For hours, a group of young men, manning barricades on a street named Justice Drive, scrutinized passing cars and the nearby police headquarters for signs of trouble.
“I wanted so desperately to help when I arrived, but drawing’s really all I’m good at,” she said. So she began wandering around the protests sites with her sketch pad.
Complete strangers before the protest, they had created a group account in recent nights on social media to assign shifts on the barricade. They had given their group a Cantonese name that translated roughly as “Those Willing to Die for the Barricade on Justice Drive.”
She said she’s still not exactly sure whom she’s drawing the pictures for and to what end.
“We don’t plan to fight or do anything to provoke the police, but if they come, we must be vigilant so we can warn everyone else,” said one who gave only his surname, Liu, for fear his nighttime activities would be frowned upon at work.
“This is just my way of remembering — the feeling of it, what it was and meant to me at the time.”
A gaggle of students played cards on the main occupied road near government headquarters. Not far away, a local artist named Milk unveiled a tall statue made of wood tiles of a man holding an umbrella, one of the symbols of the protest movement,
As they memorialized the protest, many were also beginning the process of trying to understand what exactly happened, what it meant and what effect it would have on the future of their city.
Terrence Tsui, one of the card players, insisted the occupation could go on indefinitely. “Look at us, you think we’ll leave? The police know they can’t take us all.”
“Some may say nothing has changed, if the chief executive didn’t step down, if Hong Kong’s voting procedures stay the same,” said Hui Kwat Kong, 20, who spent the past week camped out with other protesters.
By the gates of the Hong Kong chief executive’s office, dozens of protesters camped out, also showing no inclination to leave. “I don’t trust anything this government says,” said Kennedy Fong, a gas-mask-wearing demonstrator. “The only power we have is to stay here.”
But Hui said he had recently started studying the Industrial Revolution in a sociology class, and he pointed out, “Such revolutions don’t occur overnight. Something happens and the change begins piece by piece.”
A host of university presidents and high school principals appealed during the weekend for students to withdraw. “Please leave now. You owe it to your loved ones to put your safety above all other considerations,” said Peter Mathieson, president of Hong Kong University.
The biggest effect of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, he argued, wouldn’t be found in policy, polls or the politicians elected in coming years.
But Sunday night, a group of more than 80 professors made a counterargument, saying the answer to the ongoing crisis should be the government listening to the students, rather than the students leaving under the threat of force.
“All of us who came down here and joined the protest — we have changed,” he said.
The results of that, he argued, will resonate in Hong Kong for years and decades to come.
Ishaan Tharoor in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
