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The student leaders have played a key role in organizing the protests to press for greater electoral reforms. The demonstrations pose the stiffest challenge to Beijing’s authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997.

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Lester Shum, vice secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said the students would welcome an opportunity to speak to a Chinese central government official.

“However, we ask them to come to the square and speak to the masses,” Shum told reporters. “This is a movement of Hong Kongers and not led by any specific group.”

Shum demanded that Leung resign by the end of Thursday. He said there was “no room for dialogue” with Leung because he had ordered police to fire tear gas at protesters over the weekend.

“Leung Chun-ying must step down. If he doesn’t resign by tomorrow we will step up our actions, such as by occupying several important government buildings,” he said, adding that demonstrators would not interfere with “essential” government agencies, such as hospitals and social welfare offices.

The protesters oppose Beijing’s decision in August that all candidates in an inaugural 2017 election for the territory’s top post must be approved by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing local elites. They say China is reneging on a promise that the chief executive would be chosen through “universal suffrage.”

Earlier Wednesday, protesters heckled Leung as he attended a flag-raising ceremony marking China’s National Day, the day Communist China was founded in 1949. Hundreds yelled at him to step down, then fell silent and turned their backs when the ceremony began.