Hong Kong protests: pro-democracy rallies remain as national holiday begins – as it happened

Here is the latest word out of Beijing on the Hong Kong protests, not previously featured in this blog:

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press briefing: “We fully believe in and support the Hong Kong SAR government to deal with this issue.”

Tania Branigan’s report from Hong Kong this morning features voices on the students’ side that made some of the strongest demands yet heard for the departure of chief executive Leung Chun-ying:

“If Leung Chun-ying doesn’t come out to Civic Square before midnight ... then I believe inevitably more people will come out on to the streets,” said Alex Chow, secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, which organised class boycotts that sparked the mass protests.

He said options included widening the protests, a strike by workers and possibly the occupation of government buildings.

Lester Shum, another student leader, told the growing crowd at Admiralty, around government complexes: “We are not afraid of riot police, we are not afraid of teargas, we are not afraid of pepper spray. We will not leave until Leung Chun-ying resigns. We will not give up, we will persevere until the end.”

Read the full piece here. Not every protest leader is using such confrontational rhetoric. Tania has reported elsewhere that the leadership of the Occupy Central movement has acknowledged a risk of backlash to the protests.

“There’s a sense even with the organisers, that at some point they are going to have to leave,” Tania told the blog. “It may not do them any favours [to stay] it may prompt a backlash if they keep blocking off the streets.”

British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has summoned the Chinese ambassador over concerns about the handling of protests in Hong Kong, Sky News has reported:

Mr Clegg will meet the ambassador later this week to make clear his “dismay and alarm” at how authorities have handled the demonstrations.

Just before the announcement, the Guardian’s Tania Branigan (@taniabranigan) spoke to veteran democracy activist Martin Lee. Tania reports:

China’s People’s Daily newspaper has accused “foreign anti-China forces” in league with “extremists” of stirring up the protests, but Lee said such accusations should not deter foreign countries from commenting.

“The international community has a moral obligation to speak up for us,” he said.

“Leaders should say to China ‘What do you mean, mind your own business? You asked us to support the Joint Declaration [the Sino-British agreement on the return of Hong Kong]. China lobbied for international support. How can you say this is none of [our] business when something goes wrong?’”

Guardian readers in Hong Kong have been submitting their stories and photos of the protests to GuardianWitness. User Tsang Kwok Fung submits this photo of protests in Admiralty Tuesday night:

User amaryllisnight sends this photo, from “between Wan Chai and Admiralty”...

... and this photo from Cotton Tree Drive:

Not quite anarchy yet, AFP observes:

Leo Weese on Twitter photographs protesters near Bauhinia Square, by the Expo center downtown, and reports police are in the area. He reports additional protesters are moving into Convention Avenue, which runs parallel to the water north of Connaught Road and Gloucester Road.

As our live blog coverage continues, here’s a summary of where things stand:

• Demonstrations in downtown Hong Kong continued to grow Tuesday, where it is about midnight local time. Wednesday is a major state holiday in China, National Day.
• Protesters have rejected calls by Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying for them to leave the streets before the holiday celebrations, some of which have now been cancelled.
• Downtown Hong Kong is “absolutely packed” with protesters in defiance of Leung’s call for the crowds to disperse, Tania Branigan reports in an audio update. See pictures here.
• Protesters are calling for Leung to leave instead. The two sides are locked in a standoff, with no clear sign of what move Beijing may make.
• There has been a “strikingly” low key-police presence since attempts to clear the crowds with tear gas and pepper spray backfired on Sunday night, Tania reports.
• The Chinese government sent a letter to foreign embassies in Hong Kong Tuesday asking them to ensure that their nationals stay away from the protests.
• Analysts say China faces a quandary as to how to protect Hong Kong’s economic vitality and global openness while reinforcing its own control.

What we are seeing playing out in Hong Kong’s streets is China’s pursuit of “two contradictory economic and political goals,” Michael J. Casey writes in the Wall Street Journal:

On the one hand, Chinese leaders want to open up the country’s financial system, knowing that they must do so to assure sustained economic development, to promote the yuan as a global currency, and to earn China a leadership role in the international financial community. On the other, they want to assure the survival of the Communist Party regime, the sole authority over a closed political system that seeks to centrally manage the forces at work in the economy. These goals represent two opposing, immovable forces and their collision is now playing out in the streets surrounding Hong Kong’s shopping districts.

Read the full piece here.

As this tweet shows, it’s not all Hong Kong nationals taking part.

We’ve already heard about support for the protests among some people in Taiwan. Now its president, Ma Ying-jeou, has warned an over-tough official response could hamper ties between the mainland and the island state.

He told a meeting of his Kuomintang party, which supports eventual reunification with China:

If the mainland authority can handle this appeal with a delicate hand, it can help to shorten the mental gaps between people across the Taiwan Strait and benefit cross-strait relations.

Otherwise, it could serve to alienate Taiwanese people and cause damage to cross-strait relations.