Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg. A protester secures a rolled up sleeping mat as she stands next to rows of tents outside the Central Government Offices in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong, China, on Nov. 13, 2014.
Hong Kong’s government may today clear some of the city-center obstructions erected by pro-democracy protesters, as public support for the student-led movement ebbs after almost two months of demonstrations.
Police will help court bailiffs to enforce a civil injunction against protesters blocking entrance into the Citic Tower in the Admiralty district, according to apress release posted on the government’s website yesterday. The court order doesn’t cover the main tent city the protesters have set up.
Attempts to impede the bailiffs may render protesters liable to charges of criminal contempt of court and police will take “resolute action” against violence, the government said. The statement makes no mention of plans to clear barricades in theMong Kok district across the harbor, which are the target of separate injunctions.
Protesters’ options are shrinking after crowds dwindled, attempts to negotiate failed and Hong Kong’s High Court issued injunctions for the removal of barricades at some sites. The demonstrations, the largest since China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, were sparked by the mainland government’s decision to screen candidates through a committee for the city’s leadership election in 2017.
Protesters gather next to metal barricades near the Central Government Offices in the… Read More
The protesters are losing public support. About 67.4 percent of people surveyed said the activists should give up their street occupation immediately, the poll conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong from Nov. 5 to Nov. 11 showed. Those against the movement rose to 43.5 percent from 35.5 percent in October.
Youth Support
Younger people and those who are more highly educated are “more likely” to support the movement, the university said. Pollsters surveyed 1,030 Cantonese-speaking residents aged 15 or above, it said.
“Protesters surely have the right to express their discontent against Beijing’s ruling,” Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang wrote in his blog late on Nov. 16. “But to deny a proposal that enables several million Hong Kong residents to vote for the next chief executive also contradicts the meaning of democracy. Have the protesters thought about the rights of other people?”
High Court Chief Judge Andrew Cheung Kui-nung ruled last week that bailiffs can remove obstructions at two protest sites in Mong Kok on the north side of Victoria Harbor. The court on Nov. 15 dismissed an appeal against the injunction.