OCT. 7, 2014
A small group of protesters remained outside Hong Kong government offices on Tuesday. Credit Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s government and the student groups responsible for huge protests that have attracted worldwide attention agreed on Tuesday to hold negotiations on the future of democracy here, but some students immediately expressed disappointment at the narrow range of the planned discussions.
In a preliminary session late Tuesday, government negotiators and student leaders agreed that the formal talks set to begin on Friday would address how to change the electoral system, within the framework of the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that governs Hong Kong. The local authorities and the central government in Beijing have insisted that the changes the students seek are against those rules.
At stake is the method by which Hong Kong’s top official, the chief executive, is chosen. In late August, China’s legislature restricted candidates for chief executive to those picked by a committee dominated by Beijing loyalists, provoking the protests that exploded on Sept. 28.
The students and many of the thousands of Hong Kong residents who demonstrated with them over the past week and a half want nominations to be open, allowing voters, not a committee or a political party, to put forward candidates.
“The government is insincere,” Lester Shum, deputy secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told reporters on Tuesday evening. “I hope when we actually meet, they can directly face Hong Kong’s political issues.”
Mr. Shum said any move to shut down the protests, which have blocked one of Hong Kong’s most important transportation arteries and several commercial districts, would scuttle the talks.
With the government demanding that streets be cleared by the start of business this week and calls from some protest supporters to scale back the sit-ins, the number of demonstrators has dwindled drastically, but many barricades have been maintained.
Following a familiar pattern established last week, by nightfall on Tuesday the number of people in the protest zones was swelling again as supporters returned from work and school — but remained much lower than in previous days.
