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Hong Kong chief executive calls for talks with student protesters Hong Kong chief ready for talks with protest leaders
(about 5 hours later)
Hong Kong’s chief executive Leung Chun-ying said on Thursday that he hopes the government can hold talks with students calling for democracy for the Chinese-controlled city as early as next week. Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said on Thursday afternoon that the government would welcome a dialogue with protest leaders, after two consecutive nights of violent clasheswith police reinvigorated the pro-democracy movement, which has paralysed swaths of the city.
He was speaking after more than two weeks of protests that have paralysed parts of the city. The protesters are demanding free elections in 2017 and calling for Leung to step down, but Beijing insists on screening candidates first. During an afternoon press conference Leung said the government would be willing to meet with the Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the main protest organisers, “as soon as we can, and hopefully within the following week”.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam cancelled talks with student leaders earlier this month, saying it was impossible to have constructive dialogue. Yet Leung denied any possibility that officials would negotiate on any of the protesters’ core demands — that the government offer civic nominations and “full democracy” in 2017 elections, and that he step down. He added that the government has little tolerance for the protests, which have “created conflict with the public”.
Police briefly scuffled with protesters camped out in Hong Kong’s streets early on Thursday, but held back from dismantling barricades erected by the activists pushing for greater democracy in the Chinese territory. “We will restore as soon as possible social order in Hong Kong, including traffic,” he said. “Over the past few days, the police have effectively cleared various roads, the effect of which can be seen.”
Public anger simmered over a video appearing to show a group of officers kicking a handcuffed protester on Wednesday morning, as police charged the mostly student demonstrators occupying an underpass, using pepper spray and dragging dozens away. Leung’s second in command, Carrie Lam, had agreed to talks earlier this month, but cancelled them after the gulf between the two sides’ demands appeared too wide to offer any hope of reconciliation.
Police again used pepper spray in the early hours of Thursday morning to push back crowds trying to occupy a road outside the government’s headquarters. Police said two protesters were arrested, one for kicking a bottle at a private car and one for assaulting police, and three officers were injured. Wai-chung Bastien, a 34 year-old protester, said: “What CY Leung repeated [on Thursday] is that they’re happy to have a dialogue, but the goal posts aren’t changing — meaning the goalposts are Beijing’s, and that he will not resign. The two sides have a wide gap between them.”
Wednesday’s police beating appeared to mark a change in mood for many protesters. Bastien added that he doubts the announcement will cause the demonstrations to die down. He plans on returning to the protest on Thursday evening.
“I used to say at every rally that frontline police officers were just following orders. We shouldn’t hurt frontline officers because we were angry or because we blamed them. Frontline officers were just doing their jobs,” Joshua Wong, one of the protest leaders, said Wednesday evening at a rally at the main protest zone in Admiralty. On Thursday afternoon, Admiralty, the main protest site, was quiet and calm — tourists walked among umbrella-themed art installations, snapping pictures; volunteers sat fanning themselves at first aid and supply stands. The mood was more tense in Mong Kok, another major protest site in a working-class neighborhood to the north — arguments broke out between protesters and police, though no injuries or arrests have been reported.
“But I won’t say this again at future rallies,” said the 18-year-old leader of Scholarism, one of three main groups leading the protests. “If they’re just doing their work, why do they have to beat people?” Protesters have been outraged by incidents of reported police brutality over the past two nights, re-energising a movement that had, owing to both physical exhaustion and the government’s apparent inflexibility, begun to flag.
Earlier this week, police had removed barriers in an apparent attempt to chip at the edges of the three main protest zones, which have blocked traffic and angered some local businesses. On Wednesday morning, local media broadcast a video showing a group of six or seven police officers leading pro-democracy protester and Civic party member Ken Tsang from a protest site with his hands bound, and then beating him in a poorly-lit corner behind a nearby building. On Wednesday night, police in Admiralty used pepper spray against crowds of protesters as they attempted to block a road near government headquarters. Two protesters were arrested, and three officers were injured.
Protesters reacted to those moves by building bamboo structures that police dismantled. Protested later moved into an underpass before police forcefully removed them early Wednesday. “Clashes between police and demos over the past two evenings has been traumatic and stressful for both the police and the demonstrators,” said Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker in Hong Kong’s legislative council. She added that she “can fully understand the stress [the police] are under”.
Anger over the aggressive tactics used by police erupted after local TV showed several officers taking a protester around a dark corner and kicking him repeatedly on the ground. It’s unclear what provoked the attack. Local Now TV showed him splashing water on officers beforehand. “Although the demonstrators claim to be peaceful, I think they can be highly provocative verbally,” she said. “When I left [the legislative council] last night, I was surrounded by hundreds of demonstrators, lunging at me. So I have stepped up my own security.”
Protester Ken Tsang said he was kicked while he was “detained and defenceless.” He added that he was assaulted again later in the police station. Tsang, a social worker and a member of a pro-democracy political party, lifted his shirt to show reporters injuries to his torso and said he is considering legal action against police. Seven officers accused of beating Tsang have been suspended from duty, Senior Superintendent Kong Man-keung told reporters on Thursday.
Police spokesman Steve Hui said seven officers who were involved have been temporarily reassigned, and that authorities will carry out an impartial investigation. A US state department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said on Thursday that the US was deeply concerned about the video, and called for an investigation. “We renew our call for the Hong Kong government to show restraint and for protesters to continue to express their views peacefully,” she said.
Several hundred people turned up at Hong Kong police headquarters on Wednesday night for a protest organized by a social workers’ union over the treatment of Tsang. They lined up to file individual complaints about the beating.
“He was handcuffed already, he was not able to resist but still he was beaten,” said Maggie Yuen, one of the protesters. “I don’t see any explanation other than that the police abuse their authority.”
The demonstrators have taken to the streets since 26 September to oppose the Chinese central government’s decision to screen candidates to run in the territory’s first direct elections in 2017. They also want the territory’s unpopular leader Leung Chan-ying, who was picked by Beijing, to resign.
China’s central government is becoming increasingly impatient with the mostly peaceful demonstrations, the biggest challenge to its authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997. There were no signs, however, that Beijing was planning to become directly involved in suppressing them.