Screaming until they were red in the face, arguing until they burst into tears, supporters and opponents of Hong Kong's democracy protests faced off Friday afternoon in the dense commercial district of Mong Kok.
"Get out!" yelled dozens of men, pumping their fists and urging police to clear the intersection of Nathan and Argyle roads, a busy interchange with banks on each corner and shuttered jewelry shops and restaurants nearby.
Police struggled to keep the situation from erupting into a riot as periodic punches were thrown, water bottles were lobbed and curses hurled. As the afternoon wore on, the crowd swelled to perhaps 10,000.
"This is kind of the last stand," said Adrian O'Sullivan, who moved to Hong Kong from Manchester, England, three years ago and has been joining in the democracy demonstrations all week. "This was the first spot on this side [of Victoria Harbor] where spontaneous protests broke out after people couldn't get to Hong Kong Island to join the demonstrations there. We have to hold this."
With demonstrations in their sixth day and a sense of exhaustion setting in among supporters, demonstrators seemed to be facing a choice of giving up spots like Mong Kok and Causeway Bay and consolidating in other locations, or staying and risking violence and a loss of public support.
The Hong Kong government closed its central office and asked civil servants to work from home or at alternative locations.
Intermittent rains sapped strength from the demonstrators' numbers, and a sense of uncertainty lingered over the movement after an offer Thursday night by embattled Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to hold talks with a key student group spearheading the protests.
A government spokesman condemned the protesters for blocking police in their attempts to deliver food and water to officers stationed in government buildings. A statement suggested that the protesters were being directed not by student leaders or the Occupy Central movement, but by "radical social activists."
In Mong Kok, officers linked arms in an attempt to keep spectators back from groups of men engaged in heated arguments. Some canopy shelters in the main intersection were pulled down, then re-erected.
Sophia Ng, 21, said she believed agitators had been paid to stir up trouble. Based on their clothing and accented Cantonese, she suspected they were from mainland China.
Leung said late Thursday that a top aide, Carrie Lam, would meet with the Hong Kong Federation of Students, but as of midday Friday, no date, time or venue for the talks had been announced. The students want the conversation to take place in a public forum with media present.
Some schools remained closed Friday and many bus routes were still diverted. Protesters outside Leung's office intermittently blocked Lung Wo Road, the sole major east-west artery remaining open on Hong Kong Island's densely populated north shore.
Police said the blockade was "almost paralyzing" traffic and was affecting emergency services. "This conduct is irresponsible and illegal," the force said in a statement, though officers apparently made no arrests.
While some shop owners have started to complain about the impact of the protests on business, Hong Kong's stock market reopened Friday after a two-day holiday and was flat as of early afternoon.
In Beijing, the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily continued to condemn the protests in Hong Kong. The newspaper said the demonstrations are aimed at challenging "China's supreme power organ" and are doomed to fail.
"There is no room to make concessions on issues of important principles," the commentary said.
Hong Kong, a former British territory, returned to Chinese rule under a formula known as "one country, two systems." The territory of 7 million was promised greater civil liberties than their mainland counterparts.
Chinese leaders have said Hong Kong voters can for the first time cast ballots in 2017 for the chief executive, now chosen by a Beijing-friendly committee of 1,200 people. However, authorities want to limit voters' choice to two or three candidates who pass muster with Beijing, which protesters say amounts to "fake democracy."
Follow @JulieMakLAT for news from China.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times2:26 a.m.: This story was udated with details on arguments in Mong Kok.
1:12 a.m.: This story was updated with details from Mong Kok.
12:43 a.m.: This story was updated with a statement from the Hong Kong government and details on a group opposed to the demonstrators.
This story was first posted at 11:12 p.m.
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