HK gets back to work after protests
Print Edition
THE Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong subsided yesterday as students and civil servants returned to school and work after more than a week of demonstrations.
Protesters lifted a blockade of government offices in the heart of the city, the focal point of their action which initially drew tens of thousands onto the streets. Civil servants were allowed to pass through protesters’ barricades unimpeded.
By late afternoon, about 100 protesters remained in an area that houses offices for international banks as well as the main stock exchange, although some students on campus promised to return after classes in the evening.
“I hope students can persist. If we retreat now we will lose the power to negotiate,” Chow Ching-lam, studying on the ground at the protest site near the offices of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, told Reuters.
The protesters remain at a stalemate with the city government and there was no sign of movement on talks that were proposed to end the standoff.
The main road leading into the Central business district remained closed to traffic even though many protesters had left during the night. Heavy traffic was reported on other thoroughfares.
Some banks that had closed branches during the unrest of the past week also threw open their doors for business yesterday.
Protest leaders have vowed to carry on with the Occupy Central campaign until their demands are met.
While the protest numbers have dwindled, the status of the talks remained unclear.
Hong Kong broadcaster RTHK reported that student leaders met government officials at Hong Kong University late on Sunday but no clear resolutions emerged.
“It’s clear there is still discrepancy between the expectations from both parties toward the dialogue,” Lester Shum, vice secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told a news conference late on Sunday.
Across Victoria Harbor in the Mong Kok residential neighborhood, protesters also pulled back from where scuffles had broken out at the weekend with people who opposed Occupy Central.
The protests have disrupted businesses and helped wipe close to US$50 billion off the value of shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange, Reuters said.
The World Bank said that the protests were hurting Hong Kong’s economy, but the impact on China’s mainland was limited.
“What we anticipate is obviously a greater impact on the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region), so slower growth in 2014 than was being anticipated earlier,” World Bank East Asia and Pacific chief economist Sudhir Shetty said at a media briefing on the latest East Asia Pacific Economic Update.
“But at this stage our best estimates ... are that there isn’t as yet significant spillover to the broader Chinese economy.”
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