Hong Kong, government cancels talks. Students: Occupy everywhere
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - The government of Hong Kong yesterday evening canceled the planned talks with representatives of the students, who have been on the streets for weeks to achieve true democracy and the resignation of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.
The Territory's executive justified the decision by defining the protesters call for demonstrations during official meetings as "unacceptable". In response, the Federation of Students has called on the population to "occupy every inch of Hong Kong." The demonstration is scheduled for this evening at Harcourt Road, renamed "Umbrella Square".
The official announcement of the cancellation of the talks
was given by Carrie Lam, Secretary General of the Government.
About two hours later, the House Democrats and the protest leaders of the - from the Federation of
Students, Scholarism and Occupy Central -
have made it clear that now "the
protest of civil disobedience and the non-cooperation
movement will see a substantial escalation".
This is because "the government does not want to give substantive answers" to the people's demands.
Lam wanted to clarify that the government "remains open to dialogue", but stressed that
" that it would not accept protest
leaders using the public interest as a bargaining chip by linking the dialogue
results to their decision on retreating from protest sites. Their unlawful
actions must end as soon as possible". However, she did not answer directly
whether, or when, the police force would disperse protesters with force.
Alex Chow Yong-kang, secretary general of the Federation, responded in kind: "Lam had used the students' remarks as "excuses" to call off the dialogue. We were only saying that if the dialogue doesn't result in any progress, there will be such a movement, but officials said we had already started it".
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