Hong Kong protest numbers dwindle as exhaustion sets in - Polidicks

[video=youtube;QKRoOn_3-ng]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKRoOn_3-ng[/video] [QUOTE]Ending the Hong Kong democracy protests is up to the government, a student leader has said, as demonstrations dwindled and exhaustion began to set in.Schools reopened and government employees returned to work – one or two wearing yellow ribbons, a symbol of support for the movement – as the number of demonstrators dropped to the hundreds. At its peak, more than 100,000 people had taken to the streets of the city. The remaining protesters had defied [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/04/hong-kong-protesters-cleared-monday-chief-executive"]a Monday morning deadline[/URL] to withdraw. They slept on the tarmac at the main occupation zone at Admiralty, around government offices, but allowed workers to enter the buildings. A much smaller number remained at Mong Kok in Kowloon. The demonstrators were braced overnight for police attempts to remove them after Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said “all necessary actions” would be taken to restore social order by Monday morning. Many residents were on holiday for much of last week. “This is definitely not the end. We’ve never set a timeframe for how long this should go on. It’s normal for people to go home, to come and go,” said Alex Chow, of the Hong Kong Federation of Students. “It’s up to the government now. This is the first step, but the pressure has to continue.” He told the South China Morning Post: “The ball is in the government’s court … We are all waiting and watching how the government acts, to see if this is their tactic to draw this out or whether they are willing to actually hold dialogue.” The federation held a late-night meeting with officials on Sunday, but failed to reach an agreement on the basis for formal talks over political reform. Chow said the government’s willingness to hold a preparation meeting early this week would show how sincere it is about the discussions. Leung [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/03/hong-kong-protests-demonstrations-ebb-after-chief-executive-offers-talks"]first offered talks[/URL] on Thursday, after several days of occupation, but student leaders called them off after demonstrators were [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/03/hong-kong-protestesters-democracy-occupy"]violently assaulted in Mong Kok on Friday[/URL], complaining that police had not protected them. They returned to the table on Sunday night, saying police had guaranteed protesters’ safety. But even among the remaining demonstrators, hopes of making progress on the protest’s central demand – the need to loosen restrictions on the election of the next chief executive in 2017 – are ebbing. The movement was sparked by Beijing’s insistence that nominations must be tightly controlled if universal suffrage is introduced. “It’s good that [no police action] happened but … I hoped that something would happen so we could end this thing quickly,” 18-year-old protester Otto Ng told AFP. “Everyone is just exhausted and we can’t go [on for a] long, long, long time.” Divisions appeared within the protest movement on Sunday, as some withdrew from Mong Kok neighbourhood and the gate outside the chief executive’s office, while others arrived to replace them. Many of the protesters do not identify themselves with any of the groups who initiated the movement: the federation, the student group Scholarism and Occupy Central, which originally planned the civil disobedience campaign. That will inevitably make it harder to bring a smooth conclusion to the campaign.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/06/hong-kong-protests-exhaustion-sets-in[/url]

The debated this on the radio when I was drivin to work one morning. One guy said "The chinese officials says they will wait it out, which I don't think will work". Guess China learned a thing or two from Tiananmen and Maidan.

They turned Gandhi's "nonviolent civil disobedience" to "nonviolent government disobedience".

Guess it worked for now, wait till the actual candidate vetting begins, China isn't going to budge an inch or centimeter since they are metric

I guess it all depends on whether the negotiations between the FoS (Federation of Students), the pan-democratic members of the Hong Kong Legislature, other involved parties with Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor can bring an agreement on to the table. I have a feeling that many Hongkongers are displeased with Leung Chun-ying's ways of trying to deal with them and also the extreme measures initially used by the HKP.

Pretty ironic how those students are muted in the video

The "maybe if i ignore them they will go away" tactic worked

There's barely anything going on, no changes, so it was a matter of time before the people start questioning themselves if its worth it. People still had to go on with their lives, and they can't possibly seat out there forever. It always goes back to the 'Do I do it for what I believe' or 'How am I gonna continue working/feeding my family If I continue' decisions that they have to make.

Odd. It says the video isn't available in my country. I normally never use proxies but it's a good thing that one for India was posted in that Tunak Tunak Tun [URL="http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1426502"]thread[/URL]. [URL="http://www.zalmos.com/india-proxy"]http://www.zalmos.com/india-proxy[/URL] Use this if you can't view the video either.

I see alot of these people say " Fuck It " and leave Hong Kong as soon as they can ( get a job oversea's etc.)

I bet Ai Weiwei is so disappointed... :(