HONG KONG (AP) -- Pro-democracy
protesters demanded that Hong Kong's top leader meet with
them, threatening wider actions if he did not, after he said
Tuesday that China would not budge in its decision to limit
voting reforms in the Asian financial hub.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has
taken a hard line against any perceived threat to the
Communist Party's hold on power, meanwhile vowed in a
National Day speech to "steadfastly safeguard" Hong Kong's
prosperity and stability. He said Beijing believes Hong Kong
will "create an even better future in the big family of the
motherland."
China's government has condemned the
student-led protests as illegal, though so far it has not
overtly intervened, leaving Hong Kong's semi-autonomous
government to handle the crisis. But Chief Executive Leung
Chun-ying's rejection of the student demands dashed hopes
for a quick resolution of the five-day standoff that has
blocked city streets, forcing some schools and offices to
close.
Leung's statement drew a defiant
response from the students.
"If Leung Chun-ying doesn't come out
to Civic Square before midnight ... then I believe
inevitably more people will come out onto the streets," said
Alex Chow, secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of
Students, the organizer of the university class boycotts
that led to the street protests.
Chow said the students were
considering various options, including widening the
protests, pushing for a labor strike and possibly occupying
a government building.
Despite the hardening rhetoric from
both sides, the mood Tuesday night as the crowds of
protesters swelled was festive. Few police were evident, and
those who were appeared relaxed.
Both sides appeared to be waiting out
the standoff, as police continued the light-handed approach
to the protests they adopted after their use of tear gas and
pepper spray over the weekend failed to drive out tens of
thousands of people occupying streets near the government
headquarters. The sit-ins instead spread to the financial
district and other areas.
A brief cloudburst Tuesday cooled the
air, seeming to energize the protesters, a group of whom
shouted "Jiayou," or "Keep it up," and waved their
cellphones with bright LED flashlights sparkling in the
dark.
The crowd had plenty of umbrellas and
rain capes on hand, having stockpiled them as a defense in
case police might again deploy tear gas and pepper spray.
"We are not afraid of riot police, we
are not afraid of tear gas, we are not afraid of pepper
spray. We will not leave until Leung Chun-ying resigns. We
will not give up, we will persevere until the end," Lester
Shum, another student leader, shouted to a crowd at
Admiralty, near Hong Kong's waterfront.
Leung's blunt rejection of the demands
from the students is not surprising. China's Communist
leadership is wary of any conciliatory moves that might
embolden dissidents and separatists on the mainland.
The protesters want a reversal of a
decision by China's government in August that a pro-Beijing
panel will screen all candidates in the territory's first
direct elections, scheduled for 2017 - a move they view as
reneging on a promise that the chief executive will be
chosen through "universal suffrage."
Occupy Central, a wider civil
disobedience movement, said in a tweet that the deadline set
by the pro-democracy protesters includes a demand for
genuine democracy and for Leung's resignation. It said it
would "announce new civil disobedience plans same day,"
without elaborating.
China took control of Hong Kong from
the British in 1997 under a "one country, two systems"
arrangement that guaranteed the former British colony
separate legal and economic systems and Western-style civil
liberties.
Hong Kong's free press and social
media give the protesters exposure that may help prevent
China from cracking down in the same way it has on restive
minorities and dissidents living in the mainland, where
public dissent is often harshly punished.
"The people on the streets are here
because we've made the decision ourselves and we will only
leave when we have achieved something," said Chloe Cheung, a
20-year-old student at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
"We are waiting for the government to respond to our demands
for democracy and a say in what the elections will be like."
With dozens of bus routes canceled and
some subway entrances near protest areas closed, Hong Kong's
police and fire departments renewed their calls for the
protesters to clear the streets.
The protests have been dubbed the
"Umbrella Revolution" by some because the crowds have used
umbrellas to block the sun and to deflect police pepper
spray.
Many of the protesters were born after
an agreement with Britain in 1984 that pledged to give China
control of the city of 7 million, and have grown up in an
era of affluence and stability, with no experience of past
political turmoil in mainland China.
Their calls for a great say in their
futures have widespread support among many in Hong Kong
disillusioned by a widening gap between the city's
ultra-wealthy tycoons and the rest of the population.
"I am committed to taking part in the
protests as long as they remain peaceful," said Peter Chin,
a 22-year-old student at Hong Kong University.
"We are really basically just calling
for the government to speak with us but they've been mute.
We'll keep staying here until they're ready to consult with
us," he said.
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Associated Press writers Elaine
Kurtenbach, Louise Watt and Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong and
Aritz Parra in Beijing contributed to this report.