Hong Kong Protesters Brace for a Holiday Test By Jason Chow, Jacky Wong and Kathy Chu
http://online.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-protesters-brace-for-a-holiday-test-1412069610?mod=WSJ_hp_RightTopStories
HONG KONG—The mood at pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong shifted Tuesday as a festival-like atmosphere overnight gave way to one of apprehension ahead of a Wednesday holiday that celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Despite a light police presence at the protest sites that have sprung up around the city since Friday, some protesters braced themselves Tuesday for the prospect of attempts to break up the crowds.
“Tonight will be critical,” said Joanne Chung, a 24-year-old management trainee at a bank who joined the protests. “Everybody should be alert.”
York Lei, a 21-year-old university student, said he expected the police to attempt to clear the sites Tuesday night. “Many mainlanders will be here,” he said, referring to the many tourists from China who visit Hong Kong to sightsee and shop during the weeklong National Day holiday.
Tam Kam Yuk, a 67-year-old grandmother, said she came out to the protests Tuesday specifically to support the students ahead of the holiday. “This is my first time out,” she said.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s remarks Tuesday morning did little to narrow the gulf between the government and the protesters. He reiterated that the protests were illegal and said they wouldn’t change Beijing’s decision, made Aug. 31, to effectively prescreen candidates for the election of Hong Kong’s top leader—the issue at the root of the protests.
Beijing’s ruling demonstrated that “the Chinese government won’t give in to threats asserted through illegal activity,” Mr. Leung said, in his first media briefing since Sunday’s police crackdown.
Protest organizers have called for Mr. Leung to step down, holding him responsible for failing to take residents’ wishes for free elections into account and for authorizing the use of tear gas against protesters Sunday night.
“To resolve the crisis, the swiftest way is for him to resign, to give Hong Kong a way out, and to give Hong Kong some hope,” said Chan Kin-man, one of the leaders of the protest movement Occupy Central.
In an unusually outspoken statement, University of Hong Kong President Peter Mathieson on Tuesday criticized the use of tear gas and said the school “will be flexible and reasonable in understanding the actions of students and staff who wish to express their strongly held views.”
Rallies swelled in three different areas of the city throughout the day Tuesday, despite temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius. The crowds had thinned in the early morning, with many students and supporters leaving to rest or attend classes. By midday, the crowd at the main demonstration in Admiralty, near the offices of Hong Kong’s government, began to grow again and organizers expect Tuesday evening will see the biggest turnout yet in five days of running protests.
In the busy Mong Kok district, across Victoria Harbour in Kowloon, where a spontaneous sister protest erupted late Sunday, protesters remained defiant though apprehensive. Blocking a major intersection and stranding buses since Sunday night, the tired protesters slurped free fish-ball noodles donated by a nearby restaurant for breakfast, while listening to a man read aloud from the morning edition of the anti-Beijing newspaper Apple Daily on a megaphone.
Raymond Chan, a 25-year-old assistant engineer who had stayed through the night, said the mood turned tense early Tuesday when loud arguments erupted among people on the street and after a car drove through the sit-in at the intersection. He said he was afraid “trouble will start.”
Meanwhile, in the city’s financial sector, stocks hit their lowest level in 2 ½ months, and were down 1% as of Tuesday afternoon. Several banks, including Standard Chartered Bank PLC, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Bank of China Hong Kong said their operations were affected. Several bank branches reopened, but early on Tuesday Hong Kong’s central bank said more than 30 branches or offices of 21 different banks were still closed around the city.
Schools were closed in parts of Hong Kong island for a second day, and many university students continued their boycott of classes.
—Prudence Ho and Chao Deng contributed to this article.
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