Hong Kong protests
Civil servants return to work and schools reopen as pro-democracy protests dwindle.
HONGKONG— Hong Kong’s civil servants returned towork and schools were reopening Monday as a massive pro-democracy protest that has occupied much of the city center for the week dwindled.
Student demonstrators say they have taken early steps to begin talks with the government on their demands for wider political reforms, but actual negotiations have not started andmany disagreements remain.
At the government headquarters, where some protesters agreed to remove barriers blocking roads Sunday ahead of the government’s deadline to scale back their protests, the scenewas orderly as government officials arrived for work while a fewdozen remaining protesters looked on.
The crowds had thinned markedly after a week that saw tens of thousands of people fill the streets in peaceful protest. In MongKok, another protest site across the harbor where protesters had clashed violently with their opponents, a fewhundred activists were staying put at the sit-in site.
Some activists disagree with the partial withdrawal at government headquarters, and an alliance of students say they will keep up their protests until details of the talks are worked out.
“If the government uses force to clear away protesters, there will be no room for dialogue,” Lester Shum, one of the group’s leaders, told reporters.
Alex Chow, another student leader, said he was not worried about the crowd dwindling.
“Because people need rest, but they will come out again. It doesn’t mean themovement is diminishing. Many people still support it,” Chow said.
Students occupying an area just outside city government headquarters agreed to remove some barricades that were blocking the building’s entrance, after the government said itwould do whateverwas necessary to ensure 3,000 civil servants would have full access to their offices on Monday.
The partial withdrawal appeared to be part of a strategy to regroup in another part of town, as protesters were urged to shift from other areas to Hong Kong’s Admiralty district, a central location that has served as an informal headquarters for the protests.
Protesters had feared that officials may clear the streets by force, but by Monday the government appeared to settle for a partial victory in clearing some roads. The government indicated some disruptions were likely to continue.
Tens of thousands of people, many of them students, have poured into the streets of the semiautonomous city since Sept. 28 to peacefully protest China’s restrictions on the first-ever direct election for Hong Kong’s leader, promised by Beijing for 2017. The protests are the strongest challenge to authorities in Hong Kong— and in Beijing— since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
China has promised that Hong Kong can have universal suffrage by 2017, but it says a committee of mostly pro-Beijing figures must screen candidates.