Hong Kong offers talks, protests continue

Student and other protest leaders said on Friday that they were willing to take part in talks with Hong Kong's government after a deadline they had imposed for the leader of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory to step down had expired.

Just minutes before that deadline, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (pictured) held a press conference in which he offered the talks, while at the same time rejecting one of the protesters key demands.

"I will not resign," Leung said.

Leung was joined at the news conference by Hong Kong's top civil servant, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, whom he tasked with arranging the talks.

"I hope both sides will be satisfied," Lam told reporters. "Students had wanted a public meeting, but I hope that we can have some flexibility to discuss details."

No backing down on key demand

A leader of the Occupy Central group, one of the key organizers behind the protests, welcomed the offer, but said this would not change the movement's demand that Leung step down.

"This could be an opportunity to solve the plight we are facing," Benny Tai said.

A statement released by the Hong Kong Federation of Students said that it too welcomed the offer, but that Leung needed to resign as he had "lost his integrity."

Ruling party: no concessions

The ruling Communist Party in Beijing meanwhile, reiterated its support for Hong Kong's embattled leader as well as a decision to reserve the right to approve a small number of candidates to appear on a ballot to elect the former British colony's next chief executive.

"There is no room to make concessions on important principles," a front page editorial in this Friday's edition of the party's official People's Daily said.

The decision to limit to imposed limitations on the 2017 election in Hong Kong, which was passed by China's National People's Congress back in August, sparked the pro-democracy protests.

Beijing holds the line

The People's Daily on Friday described the demonstrators' demand for universal suffrage as "neither legal nor reasonalble."

The situation on the ground appeared calm on Friday, several hours after the deadline, after which protesters said they would storm government buildings if Leung failed to step down.

In his statement late on Thursday, Leung said the authorities would continue to tolerate the protests, but he appealed to the protesters not to make good on their threat to try to occupy government buildings.

pfd/ipj (AFP, AP, Reuters)