Three of the founders of Hong Kong’s protest movement called yesterday for an end to street demonstrations to prevent further violence and to take the campaign for democratic reforms to a new stage.
It wasn’t clear whether student protesters, who make up the bulk of the activists, would heed the call.
Professors Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Chan Kin-man and Pastor Chu Yiu-ming said they plan to surrender to police on Wednesday to take responsibility for protests that have shut down parts of the Asian financial center for more than two months.
Instead of street protests, the three hope to continue the campaign through networking among civic groups, community organising and education in democracy and human rights.
The three are founders of the Occupy Central movement to force China’s central government to scrap its requirement that candidates for the semiautonomous region’s chief executive be approved by a panel chosen by Beijing. However, they represent only one faction of demonstrators, most of whom are students. Joshua Wong, a prominent student leader, said Monday he and two other members of his group would go on an indefinite hunger strike to press their demands.
“We admit that it’s difficult in the future to have an escalated action, so besides suffering from batons and tear gas, we would like to use our bodies to direct public attention to the issue,” he said Tuesday. “We are not sure if the hunger strike can put pressure on the government, but we hope that when the public realises the student hunger strike, they will ask themselves what they can do next.”
In the early, dark hours of Monday, police armed with pepper spray, batons and riot shields clashed with activists carrying umbrellas as authorities moved to clear them out an area in front of the government complex where activist had been camped out.