HONG KONG — As demonstrators massed outside his offices on Thursday night, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive rejected demands that he resign and tried to ease public anger by assigning his deputy to meet with student protesters to discuss their calls for democratic reform.
But the chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, who was anointed by Beijing to lead Hong Kong two years ago, said the talks would have to be in accordance with an earlier ruling by the Chinese leadership limiting the scope of political change here — a ruling that has been a target of the mass protests that have shaken this former British colony for nearly a week.
“I will not resign because I have to continue my work on universal suffrage,” Mr. Leung said, referring to a proposal to allow residents of Hong Kong to elect his successor in 2017 from among a limited number of candidates approved by Beijing. He also defended the police’s handling of the protests, which included an attempt to disperse crowds using pepper spray and tear gas that infuriated residents.
Voices of Hong Kong’s Protest
Video by Jonah M. Kessel on October 2, 2014.
Hours later, one of the two main student groups behind the demonstrations, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, issued a statement agreeing to meet with Mr. Leung’s deputy, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, but called for the talks to be held in public. It added that the protesters’ “occupation” of key parts of Hong Kong would continue, and that the outcome of the talks would determine whether they adopted more aggressive tactics.
Another protest group, Occupy Central, also welcomed the offer of talks but repeated demands that Mr. Leung step down and Beijing withdraw its ruling limiting political change.
Mr. Leung’s remarks, made at a late-night news conference, were greeted with skepticism by some of the protesters camped outside his offices.
“We think he’s playing for time to see which side can outlast the other,” said Tiffany Ko, a student at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. “The dialogue will not be a real dialogue — that’s clear already,” she added. “He’s just going around in circles.”
Several students took exception to Mr. Leung’s comment that the police had exercised maximum restraint. “We were just being peaceful, so why say we must be tolerated?” said one, Yan Chen-man. “That shows his thinking.”
Earlier in the day, the police carried containers of rubber bullets, tear gas and other riot control gear into the complex where Mr. Leung’s offices are, and organizers called on protesters to converge on the buildings, warning that the authorities could be preparing to clear the area to allow the government to reopen on Friday after a two-day holiday.
Tensions climbed as the crowd swelled. Some student leaders have called on protesters to surround and occupy government buildings if Mr. Leung does not step down. But the police warned that any attempt to do so would not be tolerated.
Several protesters said that while they would not storm the buildings, they intended to prevent Mr. Leung from entering his office on Friday morning. That set up a potential showdown with the government, which said that it had a “responsibility to protect these government offices so they can resume normal operation,” but stopped short of saying whether the police would try to drive the protesters away.
A Hong Kong official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the subject, said the government was concerned about access to buildings, especially Police Headquarters, and wanted to warn the students not to defy police officers but could not do so easily because of limited communications.
What Prompted the Hong Kong Protests?
Hong Kong belongs to China and operates under a policy of “one country, two systems.”
Prospects for reaching a compromise in the government’s talks with the students appeared limited. Mrs. Lam met in the evening with four pro-democracy lawmakers, and no progress was reported.
Faced with a government strategy to wait them out, the protesters, who have taken over key areas of Hong Kong for days, appeared unsure whether they should escalate their confrontation or begin searching for an exit strategy.
“We don’t have a leader,” said Irene Ng, an English major at Hong Kong Baptist University. “This is trying to be a democracy, but then you try to reach a decision and you can’t. Nobody can decide. The ultimate problem is it might split us apart.”
The protesters interviewed gave no indication that a retreat was imminent. But many wondered how long they could sustain the turnout necessary to block crucial roads in the city and just what would constitute an acceptable victory.
Tim Lam, an engineer who said he had joined the sit-ins every day since Sunday, said he expected the occupation to last another week at most. “That’s about how long the protesters’ passion can last,” he said. “After one, two weeks of occupation, protesters would start to think about how it affects the economy, the everyday lives of people.”
Further escalation by the protesters could alienate members of the public resentful of a demonstration that affects their daily lives. But without more aggressive steps, the protests could fade. “If we take rash actions, we may lose people’s sympathy,” said Niko Cheng, a recent college graduate and protester in Mong Kok, a densely populated area of Hong Kong on the Kowloon Peninsula. “But if this drags on — it’s already turning into a carnival, with people dancing, singing and all that — people may forget what they’re here for.”
Prominent voices in the pro-democracy campaign have indicated that there is no consensus on what, short of an unlikely reversal of the central government’s position, would lead to an end of the protests.
“We have to achieve something that will enable the crowd to claim victory,” said Albert Ho, a lawmaker. “They must retreat with dignity, but that may not necessarily be complete victory. There must be a sense of achievement.”
The Chinese Communist Party appeared to rule out any compromise on the protesters’ key demands, publishing a front-page commentary in its official newspaper, People’s Daily, that endorsed Mr. Leung and accused pro-democracy groups of threatening to drag Hong Kong into “chaos.” In a sign of its authority, the piece cited the senior leadership, including President Xi Jinping.
But many in Hong Kong shrugged off the commentary and said they would continue pressing for genuine elections. “All the protesters here and Hong Kong people know it is extremely unlikely the Chinese leaders will respond to our demands,” said Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, a political-science professor at the City University of Hong Kong and a longtime advocate of fuller democracy in the city. “We are here to say we are not going to give up, we will continue to fight on. We are here because as long as we fight on, at least we haven’t lost.”
Demonstrators Face Dilemma as Beijing Holds Firm
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
