After clashes, Hong Kong students, government stand their ground before talks

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong students
and the government stood their ground on
Monday ahead of talks aimed at defusing more
than three weeks of pro-democracy protests
that have blocked traffic around the Chinese-
controlled city, but expectations of a
breakthrough were low.
Student-led protesters are calling for free
elections in the former British trading post, but
China insists on screening candidates first.
Hong Kong's Beijing-backed leader, Leung
Chun-ying, has said the city's government was
unwilling to compromise on China's restrictions.
The talks between student representatives and
senior city government officials, scheduled for
Tuesday evening, may yield small confidence-
building measures and an agreement to
continue the dialogue, but are unlikely to
bridge the chasm between the two sides or end
the demonstrations.
"I don't expect much from tomorrow's meeting,
but I still hold some hope for the talks," said
protester Woody Wong, a 21-year-old student
who camped overnight on Nathan Road, the
main thoroughfare in the densely populated
Mong Kok district.
"I will keep doing this until the government
listens."
Dozens of people were injured in two nights of
clashes over the weekend in Mong Kok,
including 22 police, media and police said. Four
people were arrested for assault, police said.
The area was calm on Monday although scores
of protesters remained on the streets.
Tuesday's talks, which will be broadcast live,
offer a rare opportunity to try to ease the worst
political crisis in Hong Kong since Britain
handed the free-wheeling city back to China in
1997. The government called off talks scheduled
earlier this month after the students called for
the protests to expand.
"So far we've seen no hope that they will reach
some agreement in the coming week because
both sides have different expectations of the
dialogue," said James Sung, a political analyst
at City University of Hong Kong.
POSSIBLE WIGGLE ROOM
The Hong Kong government's scope for
negotiation is severely limited by the ruling
Communist Party in Beijing, which at the end of
August announced the parameters for the 2017
election of Hong Kong's leader that sparked the
protests.
The government may have some wiggle room in
determining how the committee that selects
candidates for Hong Kong's leadership election
is picked, Sung said. The committee is now
expected to be stacked with Beijing loyalists,
anointing only candidates palatable to China's
Communist Party.
"There is some flexibility within the
framework, but the problem is whether or not
the students will accept it," said Sung. "No one
knows because the students are all idealistic."
Leung, who has rejected calls by protesters to
quit, said on Sunday that more time was needed
to broker what he hoped would be a non-violent
end to the upheaval.
"To work out a solution, to put an end to this
problem, we need time. We need time to talk to
the people, particularly young students," he told
Hong Kong's ATV Television. "What I want is to
see a peaceful and a meaningful end to this
problem."
Hong Kong's 28,000-strong police force has
been struggling to contain the movement. Over
the weekend, demonstrators in Mong Kok
squared off against police in late-night
confrontations, surging forward to stake their
claim to an intersection.
Scores of riot police smashed batons at a wall of
umbrellas that protesters raised to defend
themselves. Scuffles erupted amid shouts and
hurled insults.
On Sunday night, crowds again built up and
protesters stockpiled safety equipment such as
helmets. Some wore homemade forearm shields
made out of foam pads to parry baton blows.
But unlike the previous two nights, there were
no clashes.
'CRIMINAL ACTS' ON COMPUTER
Hong Kong is ruled under a "one country, two
systems" formula that allows it wide-ranging
autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal
suffrage as an eventual goal. But Beijing is wary
about copycat demands for reform on the
mainland.
Leung appears hamstrung, unable to
compromise because of the message that would
send to people on the mainland, while using
more force would likely only galvanize the
protests.
Hong Kong Security Chief Lai Tung-kwok said
some clashes in recent days had been initiated
by activists affiliated to "radical organizations
which have been active in conspiring, planning
and charging violent acts".
In addition to the four arrested for assault,
police on Sunday announced the arrest of a man
suspected of inciting others "on an online forum
to join the unlawful assembly in Mong Kok, to
charge at police and to paralyze the railways".
The arrest of the 23-year-old man for "access to
(a) computer with criminal or dishonest intent"
appeared to be the first of its kind since the
demonstrations began.
Mobile phone chat groups and social media sites
like Facebook have been major platforms for
protest chatter, including calls for action by
demonstration leaders.
Besides Mong Kok, about 1,000 protesters are
camped out at the headquarters of the civil
disobedience "Occupy" movement on Hong Kong
Island in a sea of tents on an eight-lane highway
beneath skyscrapers close to government
headquarters.
Hong Kong came up in weekend talks between
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese
State Councillor Yang Jiechi in Boston. A State
Department official said it was discussed as
part of candid exchanges on human rights. The
Chinese Foreign Ministry said Yang told Kerry
Hong Kong was an internal affair.
(Additional reporting by Elzio Barreto, Yimou
Lee, Clare Jim, Irene Jay Liu, Twinnie Siu and
Diana Chan and Benjamin Kang Lim in Beijing;
Writing by John Ruwitch