- Title: HONG KONG-CHINA/HUNGER STRIKE Hong Kong student leader ends hunger strike
- Date: 6th December 2014
- Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (DECEMBER 6, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTEST SITE IN ADMIRALTY DISTRICT HUNGER STRIKER AND SCHOLARISM FOUNDER, JOSHUA WONG, ON STAGE SIGN READING (English): "UMBRELLA PLAZA" (SOUNDBITE) (Cantonese) HUNGER STRIKER AND SCHOLARISM FOUNDER, JOSHUA WONG, SAYING: "The question I ask is, the students who started this (hunger strike) 118 hours ago, has the Chief Executive (Leung Chun-ying) responded? So now one of us is in the hospital already. If Leung still has a heart, and is not a heartless and mean person, I hope he would start a dialogue with us." VARIOUS OF HUNGER STRIKER IN WHEELCHAIR VARIOUS OF WONG ON STAGE CHRISTMAS WREATH AT PROTEST SITE VARIOUS OF SIGN READING (Part English): "SUPPORTING HUNGER STRIKERS" (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-FOUNDER OF SECONDARY STUDENT GROUP 'STUDENTS WAKE UP', FRITZ KELU, 18, SAYING: "I need we to do something more important, something more special, before they clear this area. But what the exact thing, we need to discuss it first. Yeah." VARIOUS OF VOLUNTEER TENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAPANESE AND ENGLISH TEACHER, YURI KOBAYASHI, SAYING: "Not only for the leader but also for other people this is a very hard situation. But I actually have no idea what's the next step for them. But the only thing I can do is stand by them, and that's all." VARIOUS OF TENTS VARIOUS OF BANNERS
- Embargoed: 21st December 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAB5AIMALD0I2R0Q5XPXRX77CB4
- Story Text: After 108 hours on hunger strike, Joshua Wong, the teenage face of the movement for political reform in Hong Kong, quit his hunger strike on Saturday (December 6) on doctor's orders.
He and two young female members of his Scholarism student group went on an "indefinite" hunger strike late Monday (December 1), a day after students tried to storm government headquarters.
But a day after a protester quit and another hospitalised, Wong challenged Hong Kong's leader, Leung Cheung Chun-ying to talk with the students.
"The question I ask is, the students who started this (hunger strike) 118 hours ago, has the Chief Executive (Leung Chun-ying) responded? So now one of us is in the hospital already. If Leung still has a heart, and is not a heartless and mean person, I hope he would start a dialogue with us," Wong said during a rally near the protest site that has been occupied for over two months.
Wong, who has been charged with obstructing court bailiffs during an operation to clear a protest camp in Mong Kok, across the harbour from the Admiralty district, is no stranger to protest movements.
Two years ago he forced the Hong Kong government to shelve plans to introduce a pro-China national education scheme in schools, with the help of secondary school activists part of the Scholarism movement.
And his supporters hint at more action.
"I need we to do something more important, something more special, before they clear this area. But what the exact thing, we need to discuss it first," said 18-year old Fritz Kelu, co-founder of the Secondary student group 'Students wake up', who also said he has been going to school and then living at the protest site since the occupation began.
"Not only for the leader but also for other people this is a very hard situation. But I actually have no idea what's the next step for them. But the only thing I can do is stand by them, and that's all," said Yuri Kobayashi, a Japanese teacher in Hong Kong who volunteers at a food tent.
Talks between demonstrators and the Hong Kong government in October led to an impasse with protest leaders saying authorities had little to offer.
Student-led demonstrators are demanding free leadership elections for the semi-autonomous Chinese city, with the main protest camp blocking a long stretch of a multi-lane highway in central Hong Kong for over two months.
China's communist authorities insist that candidates for the 2017 vote must be vetted by a loyalist committee, which the protesters say will ensure the election of a pro-Beijing stooge. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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