Leung Chun-ying asks his top civil servant to meet student leaders as he refuses to quit, backed by Beijing’s full support

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Hong Kong’s mass pro-democracy protests ebbed on Friday morning after the chief executive offered talks to student representatives minutes before their midnight deadline for his resignation.

But hundreds remained around government offices in the city’s downtown, prompting the complex’s closure, angered by Leung Chun-ying’s refusal to quit and deeply sceptical that dialogue will win any changes to Beijing’s plans for elections in the region.

Torrential rain drenched the remaining participants in the “umbrella revolution” or “umbrella movement” as a thunderstorm hit Hong Kong, with some insisting they would stay until there was evidence the government would really address their concerns.

Benny Tai, one of the co-founders of the Occupy Central movement key to the protests, urged demonstrators to be tolerant of other citizens, including civil servants returning to work after the two-day holiday.

“I hope we consider our needs, especially humanitarian needs, with tolerance,” he said, according to the South China Morning Post.

There were scuffles between police and demonstrators at Leung’s office, and angry debates between protesters trying to block the road running past it and the larger number who opposed them, warning it would only antagonise the public.

Demonstrators created safe passage lines so that vehicles could get through.

The spontaneity and diversity of the movement will make it harder to bring it to a smooth end. Student and Occupy Central organisers have stressed for days that they are no longer the leaders of the protests.

Hundreds more protesters remained in Mong Kok. At Causeway Bay, the third protest site, only a handful of protestors remained and police cleared away most of the barriers they had erected. Some residents complained angrily to demonstrators about the disruption.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pro-government protesters confront Occupy demonstrators in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok business district

The chief executive said in his eleventh hour press conference that he was staying, but announced that he had asked chief secretary Carrie Lam to speak to student representatives, as they had requested. Beijing had earlier expressed its total confidence in his leadership.

His remarks were the first concession in a stand-off that has lasted for days, with tens of thousands of protesters paralysing parts of central Hong Kong at its peak.

Hong Kong residents knew that Beijing’s promise of universal suffrage for the election of the next chief executive in 2017 would come with onerous conditions.

But they were angered by the toughness of the rules set out in a decision from the standing committee of China’s National People’s Congress, its effectively rubber-stamp legislature. They rule out any prospect of a democratic candidate.

Beijing argues that universal suffrage is a step forward in a region that has never enjoyed democracy.

But critics say that it is meaningless because of the conditions set upon it, and see it as a betrayal of a pledge.

It has come to epitomise broader concerns about Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the region and the erosion of the rights and freedoms Hong Kong enjoys – such as freedom of expression and an independent judiciary – under the “one country, two systems” framework.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students said in a statement early on Friday that it would take part in the talks with the government, stressing that the dialogue would cover only political reform. It repeated its demand that Leung step down, saying he “had lost his integrity.”

Joshua Wong, co-founder of another student group, Scholarism, wrote on Facebook: “People have asked me what my position is. People have asked me what my thinking is. To me, it is not complicated nor hard to understand...For Leung Chun-ying to step down; to fight for civic nomination; the withdrawal of the NPC decision [which imposed tough restrictions on future chief executive elections].”

Occupy Central also welcomed the talks but still insisted that Leung quit.

The limited prospects of a real change in the government’s stance were underlined by a third front page commentary on the movement in China’s official party paper The People’s Daily on Friday.

It said the demonstrations were “doomed to fail” and accused a small group of protestors of seeking to “hijack” the system, saying they only wanted to ensure that their representatives - “including those who confront the central government” - could stand for chief executive.

It added: “Upholding the decision of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress is the necessary decision, and the only decision...There is no room to make concessions on important principles.”

