The president of Hong Kong University and several other prominent city figures called on democracy demonstrators to leave the streets Sunday as a showdown loomed between protesters and government authorities in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
"I appeal to all … students and staff to leave all protest areas immediately. Please stay calm and leave in an orderly manner without delay," said Peter Mathieson, president and vice chancellor of Hong Kong University.
"I am making this appeal from my heart because I genuinely believe that if you stay, there is a risk to your safety," he added. "Please leave now. You owe it to your loved ones to put your safety above all other considerations."
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, police said they had arrested 30 people in recent days, for offenses including possession of weapons, sexual assault and fighting. "As many as 10" journalists were reported to have been injured, said Steve Hui, police public relations bureau chief commander, adding that officers had arrested a 56-year-old man in Mong Kok suspected of assualting a reporter and will be conducting further investigations "without bias."
As for allegations that police had not responded adequately to unrest in recent days and had colluded with Triad gangs or tolerated Triad activities, Hui said, "These allegations are totally unfounded and extremely unfair to our officers."
Hui said 27 police officers have been hurt, suffering chest, back, head and limb injuries.
The mass demonstrations entered their eighth day Sunday. During predawn scuffles in the Mong Kok neighborhood where protesters have been staging a sit-in for days, police with shields and batons briefly used pepper spray as crowds pushed and surged in narrow streets packed with people. Several people were injured.
With thousands of demonstrators still surrounding government headquarters in the Admiralty district, uncertainty loomed about whether protest organizers, led by the Hong Kong Federation of Students, would find a way to begin negotiations with the administration of Beijing-backed Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.
The government said in a statement that it was ready to open a dialogue with the student federation but laid out two conditions: that demonstrators stop blocking a pedestrian bridge and roads surrounding Leung's office, and that main roads in Admiralty be cleared to allow traffic to flow again.
"At this stage it's still a stalemate. For C.Y. Leung, he's determined to disperse the protesters tonight, or before 9 a.m. Monday morning," said Willy Lam, a political analyst and professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "I think police will come out in force. Otherwise the Leung administration will lose all credibility."
Leung took to the airwaves Saturday evening to call on protesters to disperse so that civil servants could return to work Monday morning and schools could reopen. Schools in the central and western district of Hong Kong Island were closed last Monday, Tuesday and Friday as demonstrations shut down major transportation arteries in those areas (the territory marked two days of public holiday on Wednesday and Thursday).
With demonstrators sitting in around his office early Friday and periodically blocking the last remaining east-west thoroughfare in the area, Lung Wo Road, Leung ordered the central government office to close and civil servants to work from home or other locations. But some protesters said the move was unnecessary and designed to make their demonstration look more disruptive than it was; they claimed they were allowing sufficient access to the site for employees.
Mathieson was joined Sunday in his call for demonstrators to declare an interim victory and initiate a strategic retreat. Former Chief Justice Andrew Li said demonstrators were risking a "misfire." A leader of the city's Exceutive Council, Lam Woon-kwong, also called for demonstrators to retreat.
But Lam, the professor, said the student leaders feared that if they dispersed now, they would have little to show after a weeklong student class strike followed by another week of mass street protests that have captured the world's attention.
Hong Kong, a former British territory, returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under an arrangement known as "one country, two systems." The region of 7 million was supposed to enjoy a high degree of autonomy for 50 years, with the exception of matters such as foreign affairs and national defense.
Demonstrators have been angered by Beijing-issued guidelines for the city's 2017 election for chief executive. The rules would allow the territory's 5 million eligible voters to cast ballots for the first time for chief executive, but would require that candidates pass muster with a screening committee partial to Beijing. Protesters say that amounts to "fake democracy."
Students have called for Leung to step down and for negotiations over rescinding the framework issued by Beijing.
"The students' reasoning is if they are to beat a retreat without achieving anything tangible, it will be difficult to regroup," said Lam. "They don't want to give up without achieving something tangible."
Lam predicted that police might resort to tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters if they did not clear major roads by Monday morning.
"If they use tear gas and rubber bullets and so forth it's possible to clear protesters for several hours, but the students will return," Lam said.
Follow @JulieMakLAT for news from China
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times1:42 a.m.: This story was updated with details from the police news conference Sunday afternoon.
This story was originally posted at 11:11 p.m.
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