Mapping Hong Kong's future beyond Occupy Central
The sit-ins have to end sooner or later and protest organisers are starting to think about how to keep the spirit of the movement alive
Sixty days into the unprecedented pro-democracy sit-ins, the government's intransigence and the protesters' persistence have led to a stalemate.
As the sit-ins drag on with several surveys suggesting public support for the movement is waning, Occupy Central's co-founders are planning to surrender to police next Friday. Dr Chan Kin-man, the Reverend Chu Yiu-ming and Benny Tai Yiu-ting hope their arrests will answer critics who say the protesters' defiance of injunctions in Admiralty and Mong Kok have eroded the rule of law and signal to those still occupying the demonstration sites that it is time to go home.
They also hope, as Chan says, to "search for ways to keep the spirit of the movement alive" at a time when it has splintered into factions, with Chu saying "the unhealthiest phenomenon" of creating fake enemies has emerged in the pro-democracy fight.
Pressure has mounted on the sit-in organisers since courts cleared the way for bailiffs and police to dismantle some of the protest areas in Admiralty and Mong Kok, and the Bar Association warning that Occupy protesters' defiance of injunctions to clear the streets posed a threat to the rule of law.
The number of occupiers - and their morale - has been falling as Beijing remains unwilling to bend to their core demand - that the public be given a voice in deciding who will be the candidates in the 2017 chief executive election.
Sies Chan Kwan-yin, an occupier in Admiralty, said he would answer the calls of the movement's founders to retreat after they have turned themselves in to the police.