Hong Kong student leaders say they may stay on the streets until June

Student leaders of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests said Friday they might stay on the streets until next June if their attempt to seek talks with authorities in Beijing fails to resolve their political impasse.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students, a leading protest group, backed off earlier plans to send a delegation to the Chinese capital to seek a direct dialogue with top Communist Party leaders during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit taking place in coming days. Such a move while more than a dozen world leaders -- including President Obama -- are in Beijing could have been regarded as highly provocative.

The student group has instead reached out to former Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-Hwa, asking him to arrange a meeting between students and a senior Chinese official either in Hong Kong or Beijing to discuss the framework for the semi-autonomous territory’s 2017 election.

Alex Chow, secretary-general of the federation, said a one-time dialogue can hardly solve the problem, and that the pro-democracy Occupy Central movement might persist until June 2015. That’s when Hong Kong’s Legislative Council is expected to vote on the Hong Kong government’s proposal for how the 2017 chief executive election should work. The proposal, which will be put forth by chief executive Leung Chun-Ying, is likely to echo an August decision that drove thousands of protesters to the streets.

“Everyone agreed we won’t retreat for no reason before the legislature takes a vote on the political reform bill,” said Chow. Twenty-six of the city’s 27 lawmakers from the so-called pan-democrats group have said they will veto any proposal for the 2017 chief executive election that does not meet international standards for universal suffrage.

In order for a reform proposal to be passed in the legislature, it has to have the support of two-thirds of the city’s 70 lawmakers.

Protesters in Hong Kong, a former British territory that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a framework known as “one country, two systems,” took to the streets in late September after the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress laid down a tougher-than-expected framework for Hong Kong’s 2017 election for chief executive. The panel essentially decreed that only two or three candidates would be allowed and all must pass muster with a screening committee.

A two-hour dialogue between protest leaders and five Hong Kong government officials last month yielded little common ground. The session was the first of what was expected to be several rounds of talks aimed at resolving the political crisis, but a second round has yet to be scheduled.

In an open letter to Tung, who was chief executive from 1997 to 2005, the student group appealed to him to “demonstrate the statesmanship” to help the demands of Hong Kongers be heard.

The group urged Tung to respond by Sunday. Otherwise, they said they would head to Beijing directly to seek talks after APEC.

Tung is a close ally of China’s president, Xi Jinping. He led a delegation of Hong Kong tycoons and business elites to meet Xi in Beijing in mid-September.

The 77-year-old held a press conference last month to urge students to leave the streets, adding that the central government had heard the protesters’ voice but believes the city should implement democracy gradually.

Chow responded that Chinese leaders cannot hear the views of most Hong Kong people by just meeting with tycoons.

Hui is a special corrrespondent.