Hong Kong Protest Groups Show Strains Ahead of Talks

A pro-democracy protester reads the newspaper on the main street to Hong Kong’s financial district.Reuters

HONG KONG—Students and government officials in Hong Kong sniped at one another on Wednesday, a day after agreeing to formal talks, as strains showed among protest groups that have paralyzed parts of the city for 11 days.

With formal negotiations set to begin on Friday, the two sides are far apart, with students demanding changes that the government has said are impossible to agree to. Even if there was a deal to end the protests, some of the protesters say they would reject it, showing the difficulty faced by both sides in reaching an agreement.

“There are no leaders of this movement,” said Christine Wong, a 28-year-old Hong Kong native who works in a clinic and has been protesting since Sept. 28. “The government has to answer us directly, to us on the streets. This movement is out of anybody’s control.”

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Ms. Wong is a member of Civic Passion, a Hong Kong group that is demanding free elections and believes mainland China is eroding the city’s culture and the Cantonese dialect—the lingua franca of the city.

While student leaders and government officials sat at the bargaining table Tuesday night, Civic Passion drew hundreds of people to one of the protest sites, where it featured a live radio show hosted by the group’s founder and a charismatic politician known for his expletive-laden tirades about the government.

If the negotiations drag out, one risk is that more moderate protesters go home and radicals make up an increasingly large portion of the people on the street.

The protests are led by three main groups: college students tied to the Hong Kong Federation of Students, another student group called Scholarism that is made up of mostly high-school students and Occupy Central with Love and Peace, which was founded by two college professors and a Baptist minister.

Civic Passion and several other protest groups aren't affiliated with any of them.

On Wednesday, leaders of the main protest groups criticized the city and city officials shot back.

Lester Shum, a leader of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, which is the group in the negotiations, called on the city not to use “divisive tactics” to split the three groups.

Scholarism leader Joshua Wong called on his followers to hold a big rally when the talks take place. That move drew a rebuke from government representative Lau Kong-Wah, who said the rally could “hijack” the talks.

Christine Wong, 28, started protesting last Sunday and has come to the site everyday. She is affiliated with Civic Passion, a group that believes Hong Kong’s independence and cultural identity is threatened by mainland China. Billy H.C. Kwok for The Wall Street Journal

The three groups have taken pains to say they agree with each other and the two groups not involved in the talks aren’t complaining. But there has been sniping, especially between Occupy Central and the students. Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former bishop of Hong Kong and a prominent supporter of Occupy Central said, “it’s not wise nor fair for students to take the lead,” in the talks.

“We have to consolidate leadership,” said Jimmy Lai, owner of the Apple Daily newspaper and a supporter of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. He and others said they were pessimistic about the negotiations and said protesters should “call for a retreat” over the weekend so they don’t “exhaust all the goodwill of the Hong Kong people. This inconvenience that we’re causing is making people fed up.”

However, it is not clear Civic Passion would listen. The group publishes a free monthly newspaper and online news site called The Passion Times that call for “cultural resistance against mainland China,” according to member Chung Cheng-Tai. The loosely organized group used its Facebook page to mobilize its members on Sept. 28, hours before Hong Kong police used tear gas against protesters.

The group has about 120 members participating in the protests, dispersed over the three protest sites, with the bulk of its members at the densely populated working class neighborhood of Mong Kok. Civic Passion has tents at each site, distributing bottled water and food to fellow protesters. Each tent has a sound system for its members to “share thoughts and feelings,” Civic Passion’s Ms. Wong said.

As the protests expanded, leftist political parties such as the League of Social Democrats and People Power joined in. Those parties have become more vocal in recent days.

The main problem faced by student negotiators is the government has already rejected their key demand—a direct public nomination of candidates for chief executive, the city’s top leader. Few believe Beijing will go back on the ruling by the National People’s Congress that would only allow approved candidates to appear on the ballot.

“We have nothing to counteroffer,” said Scholarism’s Mr. Wong. “The only thing we are demanding is to for the NPC to withdraw the decision. Once they agree, we will vacate immediately.”

“I don’t expect too much from the negotiations,” said Kit Chan, a student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University who spent the night at the Admiralty protest site. Her own stamina for protesting was diminishing. “I don’t think I will come that often in the coming days,” she said.

People like Ms. Wong are digging in. “We’re not afraid of anything,” she said. “We are clear about our demands. Only if the government answers us will we leave.”

Demonstrator sleeps outside the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong Billy H.C.Kwok for The Wall Street Journa