News Digest

Warning to disperse renews ardor of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters

Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters held a peace rally in central Hong Kong in defiance of recent attacks against their ranks, as students early Sunday re-opened the door for talks with government over their political reform demands. Hong Kong’s main student union, which had called off the negotiations saying police failed to act over the violent clashes, said it would meet with the government on the condition it responded over the police handling of the ugly scenes Friday. Tensions appeared to be ratcheting up early Sunday with reports of fresh clashes with police using batons in Mong Kok, a densely packed working-class district that saw some of the worst scenes of violence the previous night.

How long will we stay? Until we win this war. I don’t think we will leave. All the people here are ready (for the consequences).

Jericho Li, a 19-year-old student

Student activists, established protest groups and ordinary Hong Kongers have joined forces to present Beijing with one of its biggest political challenges since it violently crushed pro-democracy protests in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989. Tens of thousands of protesters have staged sit-ins across Hong Kong over the past week, demanding the city’s pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying step down and calling on China to reverse its decision to select the candidates for the city’s 2017 leadership election. Leung has warned that the situation - which has seen the worst unrest in Hong Kong since the former British colony was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997 - could get “out of control, causing serious consequence to public safety and social order”.