HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s student activists have become local celebrities thanks to televised confrontations with officials as they demand reform -- but their frustration with the city’s wider democracy movement is growing over fears of compromise with Beijing.
Public discontent in Hong Kong is at its highest for years, with heightened concern over perceived interference from China, notably Beijing’s insistence that it vet candidates before the vote for the city’s next leader in 2017.
Pro-democracy group Occupy Central has pledged to seize the central business district if public nomination of candidates is ruled out by the authorities.
Student campaign groups say that civil disobedience is the only way to secure change -- and that it should happen sooner rather than later.
“You have to gather citizens and really make civil disobedience a practice, not just repeatedly say it,” Alex Chow, the 23-year-old chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said.
“If you do not carry out any action, your opponents will not see how serious Hong Kong people are treating democracy.”
Chow says that the students will not compromise on their demand for the public to choose candidates -- adding that this sets them apart from other pro-democracy groups.
AFP
