HK authorities cancel talks  

林鄭月娥：暫不與學聯代表會面

Discussions collapse as activists push to expand agenda

The Hong Kong government on Thursday called off talks with student protesters scheduled for Friday, after the activists called for a new round of escalating actions. Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the Chief Secretary of Hong Kong and the city's No.2 official, who was going to lead the dialogue with the protesters, made the announcement at a press conference on Thursday night.

The communication channel broke down after the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) and other related groups decided to press ahead with the protests, said Lam.

The agreement to talk was reached on Tuesday between the region's government and the HKFS. The government said the federation's representatives agreed that constitutional development under the Basic Law would be on the agenda for the first round of talks.

The federation's representative said later they were angry and disappointed at the agenda set by the government.

Before the first talks, set to begin Friday, representatives of HKFS, Scholarism, and Occupy Central with Love and Peace announced Thursday they would roll out a new round of non-cooperation movements.

Meanwhile, Civic Party lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit said he will pressure the Hong Kong government by mobilizing other pan-democratic legislators to veto motions submitted by it, except on plans that will have immediate impacts on people's livelihoods.

These plans were condemned by Lam as unacceptable, because the activists are utilizing the opportunity of open talks to mobilize more Hong Kong residents to participate in the Occupy action. A constructive discussion will not be possible for the time being, she said.

"The student representatives should bear the responsibility for the fact the talks have been shelved as they have changed their demands and plans before the talks, which shows they are not sincere about the dialogue," Gary Ching, a representative of anti-Occupy group Alliance for Peace and Democracy, told the Global Times.

HKFS leader Alex Chow Yong-kang late Thursday responded to Lam's announcement about calling off the talks by escalating the actions and urging more people to join the occupation.

"The Federation of Students is not being rational for challenging the framework set by the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. It is impossible for the occupation to go on forever, as the majority of Hong Kong society has shown disapproval for the movement for causing inconvenience to their daily lives," Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, a Hong Kong legislator, told the Global Times.

On Wednesday, a board member of a Japanese chain restaurant and the owner of a travel agency filed a lawsuit against Benny Tai Yiu-ting, one of the protest's main organizers, for the losses caused to their business due to the Occupy action.

Experts said the dialogue will not resume until the students return the discussion to the legal framework.

"The students should raise their demands within the legal framework of the Basic Law and the decision set out by the NPC Standing Committee in late August, instead of pressing ahead with their own initiatives," Tian Feilong, a legal expert at Beihang University in Beijing and visiting scholar at the University of Hong Kong, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"With the pan-democratic lawmakers joining the movement, the activists are trying to create pressure and even to paralyze the government's operations," said Tian. Ching said they have a questionable chance of success as support for these lawmakers may drop when Hong Kong residents are "no longer fooled by their constantly changing demands and plans."

The protests that demand "genuine" democracy in the city's upcoming chief executive election in 2017 have paralyzed parts of the city for 12 days.

The number of protesters has seen a gradual decline, while some still refused to leave the protest sites of Admiralty and Causeway Bay and continued blocking the major roads, while only dozens of protesters remained in Mong Kok.

Tian said that despite the activists' intention to use the new round of actions to draw in more bargaining power, support for the Occupy movement has been dwindling as turnout for the rally will not return to its peak on September 28 when the protests started.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Justice Department Thursday handed to prosecutors the investigation into a payout to the city's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying by an Australian engineering company, as the pan-democratic camp sought to probe the payment, reported Reuters.

The Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday claimed in a series of reports that Leung Chun-ying "pocketed millions in secret fees from a listed Australian company in return for supporting its Asian business ambitions."

The Chief Executive Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said Wednesday evening that there was no requirement for Leung to declare payments from the Australian company before taking office as the region's leader, the Xinhua News Agency reported.