2014-11-04
A man takes pictures of tents as he crosses a highway where a pro-democracy protest site is set up in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong, Nov. 4, 2014.
AFP
Since Hong Kong’s mass pro-democracy protests began on Sept. 28, the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) has emerged as the most popular political group in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, a new opinion poll has shown.
The University of Hong Kong’s public opinion research center found that student group’s role in the protests appears to have eclipsed that of the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement established earlier in the year to push for universal suffrage in the 2017 elections for the chief executive of the former British colony,
The HKFS, led by Occupy protest figureheads Alex Chow and Lester Shum, had previously never reached the top 12 rankings for recognition or popularity. Now, it is the best-known political group.
The poll also found that the popularity of every other political group has fallen since June.
The pan-democratic Civic, Democratic and Labour Parties fell nine points in the poll, while the pro-Beijing labor group the Federation of Trade Unions dropped more than eight points in the poll.
Meanwhile, the academic activist group Scholarism, led by Joshua Wong, now ranks as the fifth most popular political organization, according to the poll in which more than 1,000 respondents participated between Oct. 20 and 23,
Debating the future
Student leaders had debated Hong Kong’s political future with government officials on live television on Oct. 21.
Last month, a study carried out by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found growing support for the pro-democracy movement.
But a smaller poll by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University found that 70 percent of people believe that those camped out at three protest sites on major highways should now leave.
Social policy researchers polled 554 people during the weekend, and found that while embattled chief executive Leung Chun-ying is still the main figure shouldering the blame for the political standoff, 70 percent of people believe the occupiers should withdraw.
Occupy protesters are still encamped on three main sites in the former British colony, but numbers have dwindled from a peak of hundreds of thousands after tear gas was deployed on Sept. 28, and especially since talks between protesters and the government reached an apparent stalemate last month.
Anti-Occupy protesters say they are gaining wider support among the general public, which has indicated that it wishes to see a return to business as usual.
Meanwhile, protesters face the possibility of forced eviction from their campsites, should police move to clear barricades from the highway following civil injunctions brought by the transportation industry.
Going to Beijing
The students confirmed on Tuesday that they planned to travel to Beijing on Saturday ahead of next week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leadership summit in a bid to plead their case with Chinese officials.
