HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s government has said it will open talks with student demonstrators on Tuesday, after three nights of violent clashes between police and protesters who have paralysed parts of the city with mass pro-democracy rallies.
The city’s leader Leung Chun-ying made a dramatic u-turn on Thursday by announcing a return to talks with the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), one of the groups leading the protests, after abruptly pulling out of discussions a week earlier.
“Right now we are planning that it will take place on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 21,” Leung’s deputy Carrie Lam told reporters on Saturday.
Lam said the talks — which will be broadcast live — would be focused on constitutional reform, with both sides allowed to bring five members to the meeting.
But hopes of any breakthrough are slim, with the government unlikely to cede to protesters’ core demands — Leung’s resignation and free leadership elections for the semi-autonomous Chinese city in 2017.
Beijing insists that candidates for the vote must be vetted by a committee expected to be loyal to China, and Leung has warned that the country’s communist authorities have no intention of backing down.
Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014
