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World|life|October 22, 2014 / 11:12 AM
Hong Kong protesters plan march after fruitless talks with government

AKIPRESS.COM - hk marching Hong Kong protesters planned to march to the home of the city's Beijing-backed leader on Wednesday to push their case for greater democracy a day after talks between student leaders and senior officials failed to break the deadlock, reports Reuters.

Demonstrators have occupied main streets in the Chinese-controlled city for nearly a month to oppose a central government plan that would give Hong Kong people the chance to vote for their own leader in 2017 but tightly restrict the candidates to Beijing loyalists.

A wide chasm separates the protesters and the government, which has labeled their actions illegal and repeatedly said their demand for open nominations was impossible under the laws of the former British colony.

Expectations had been low for a breakthrough in Tuesday evening's televised talks which were cordial and pitted five of the city's most senior officials against five tenacious but poised student leaders n black T-shirts.

Protesters were unhappy about what they felt was a lack of substantive concessions from the government officials and they dug in their heels.

Some have called for a march to the home the city's leader, Leung Chun-ying, and will repeat their calls for him to step down.

"I am going to join the march this afternoon to express my dissatisfaction," said Kelvin Kwan, a 29-year-old social work graduate who camped with protesters overnight in the Mong Kok district.

Andy Lau, a 19-year-old college student, said now was the time to step things up.

"I think it is time to seriously consider escalating the movement, such as expanding our occupation to many more places to pressure the government to really face and answer our demands," he said.

Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that allows it wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal suffrage as an ultimate goal. But Beijing is wary about copycat demands for reform on the mainland eroding the Communist Party's power.

City leader Leung told reporters before Tuesday's talks that the panel that picks candidates for Hong Kong's 2017 election could be made "more democratic".

That was first indication of a possible concession.

"There's room for discussion there," said Leung, who did not take part in the talks. "There's room to make the nominating committee more democratic."

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