'The sun rises as usual': Beijing official's response to Occupy Central

The sun may rise as usual, but Occupy Central hasn't felt any warmth from Beijing.

With city streets filled by democracy protests, Zhang Xiaoming, director of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, responded for the first time yesterday to a barrage of media questions about the protests. He said with a slight smile: "The sun rises as usual."

Occupy Central co-founder Dr Chan Kin-man disagreed.

"To be honest, even if the sun has risen, we don't feel the warmth," he said. "Dark clouds have been covering us, particularly in the past two years since [Chief Executive] Leung Chun-ying was sworn into office."

Leung and one of his predecessors, Tung Chee-hwa, were tight-lipped at the National Day flag-raising ceremony yesterday at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.