Occupy looks beyond protest sites after violent crackdown on siege
Student leader says recent siege of Chief Executive's Office was a failure, and that the movement is looking beyond protest sites
Conceding that an attempt on Sunday to besiege the government headquarters was a failure, student protest leaders are shifting their focus beyond the occupation zones.
Alex Chow Yong-kang, secretary general of the Federation of Students, said yesterday that his group was now discussing a "road map" with other civil groups for actions outside the Admiralty encampment.
"We hope to work it out soon so that we can shift the direction of the movement," Chow said. "[After Sunday] we realised that it is not the time for further large-scale physical action."
His group has not decided whether to retreat, given members of student group Scholarism, including convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung, are on a hunger strike. Last night, two more members, Gloria Cheng Yik-lam and Eddie Ng Man-hin, joined the hunger strike, bringing its total number to five.
Although Wong had announced his move without the agreement of the federation, Chow said the government must not ignore the hunger strikers' demand for dialogue. The two student groups would discuss the way forward, he said.
But Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said the hunger strikers' demands were "impractical" and could not be met.