華爾街日報Hong Kong Government Seeks to Wait Out Protesters

HONG KONG— Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong's chief executive, has adopted a new strategy to marshal the city's widespread pro-democracy protests: allow the demonstrations to continue until the protesters tire or lose support from the wider public, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The impetus to resolve the standoff peacefully has come from the Chinese government in Beijing, this person said.

"Beijing has set a line to C.Y. You cannot open fire," this person said. "You must halt it in a peaceful way."

The thinking behind the tactic is to resolve the standoff by peaceful means and comes after a move on Sunday to deploy tear gas backfired on the government.

"The strategy is to control the situation and let them occupy until a time that the inconvenience caused to others in Hong Kong will swing the public opinion against Occupy or pressure the organizers to call it off," this person said. "They can wait to a time the public opinion will swing."

But the thinking only covers the near term, this person said, and the strategy could change if Hong Kong remains disrupted heading into next week.

Mr. Leung didn't have much choice in deciding not to confront protesters because the crowds are too big, an official at the city's security bureau said. Police don't have other effective options now that tear gas backfired and strengthened the protests, the official said.

The chief executive's office declined to comment. Duty numbers at China's foreign ministry and the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office rang unanswered after business hours Wednesday, a holiday.

While there are no direct negotiations under way between the protesters and government, there are open lines to discuss issues such as access for emergency services, the person familiar with the matter said.

"The government has good communications with all the organizers," the person said.

Early Wednesday, there were already signs of the new tactic. The Hong Kong government allowed students to attend the National Day flag-raising ceremony, a departure from previous years when students were not allowed.

"I think police didn't stop us this year because of accelerated political pressure and mounting discontent in society," Joshua Wong, the 17-year-old leader of student group Scholarism, said about the ease with which he and dozens of other student activists were allowed to attend the flag-raising ceremony.

Scholarism had tried to attend the National Day flag-raising last year and in 2012 to express their dissatisfaction with Beijing and the Hong Kong government. Both times, they were refused entry and escorted away by police and security guards.

When the flag went up this morning, about 30 students turned their backs to the flag, crossing raised hands in front of their faces in a gesture of protest as military planes and helicopters carrying national flags flew above the ceremony.

Some pro-democracy attendees waved the Chinese flag upside down, starkly contrasting with more than a hundred pro-government attendees with red caps and waving small Chinese and Hong Kong flags.

The ranks of the pro-democracy rallies continued to swell throughout the day Wednesday, threatening to escalate beyond the aims of some organizers and raising the chance of confrontation.

The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, described Hong Kong's Occupy Central demonstrators as self-interested and warned that some would meet unspecified consequences.

In a sharply worded, unsigned commentary that appeared in the newspaper and online Wednesday, the People's Daily said that because respect for rule of law and procedure is a core Hong Kong value, residents dissatisfied with the central government's election plan should lodge appeals through "reasonable channels."

Occupy Central' is not communication. 'Occupy Central' is resistance," the commentary read. "These days a small minority of people are determined to oppose the rule of law and provoke disturbances. In the end they will eat their own fruit."

The commentary said that the protests had cast a shadow over Hong Kong's business environment and that the majority of Hong Kong residents agreed economic development should take priority.

"In this unusual period," the commentary said, Hong Kongers should "support the firm enforcement of law by Hong Kong police."

The government and protesters had dug into their positions

Tuesday: Protest organizers called on Mr. Leung to resign by midnight or face growing masses on the streets. Mr. Leung urged protesters to return home in his first public remarks since police cracked down on protesters Sunday.

After the deadline passed, crowds fanned out to Golden Bauhinia Square, the setting for the first round of celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China—despite the warnings of some protest leaders who feared alienating the public or inciting a government crackdown.

Just outside the square early Wednesday, one group of protesters debated whether to continue their peaceful protest or whether they should take a more aggressive approach.

"If you want to win, you have to do something, but nobody knows exactly what to do," said Nick Wong, a dentist who joined the demonstrations Tuesday night.

Richie Yue, a student at the University of Hong Kong, said he was in the area near Bauhinia Square early Wednesday to ask protesters to leave, worrying that their presence veered too far from the goals of the Occupy Central movement, which advocates peaceful protests.

On Tuesday, crowds endured heavy rain and lightning to gather across Victoria Harbour on the luxury shopping strip on Canton Road, in the Tsim Sha Tsui district. Supplies such as bottled water and food were quickly ferried to the newcomers.

Mr. Leung has chided protesters for endangering Hong Kong's economy and reputation, and said protests wouldn't change Beijing's decision to effectively prescreen candidates for the election of Hong Kong's top leader—the issue at the root of the protests.

The war of words underlined growing apprehension ahead of the weeklong holiday in China, which draws many mainlanders to Hong Kong to sightsee and shop.

Protests in Admiralty showed no signs of abating. But many of the people present expressed concern that the rallies were becoming too confrontational.

Cheung Yu-yeung, a student, said he feels the protests are getting out of control and expanding too quickly, with too many different agendas. "We are not going to go against the police or China's government. We just want real open nominations for chief executive," he said.

Early Wednesday, as the protests entered their sixth day, one of the main student-led groups, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said on its Twitter account: "We recommend protesters to secure already occupied areas now instead of expanding the movement." In a tweet around the same time, another major student group, Scholarism, discouraged protesters from going to Golden Bauhinia Square for the flag-raising ceremony.

The combination of events to celebrate patriotism toward China and the start of a big shopping week fueled fears on the streets Tuesday night that the city would try to clear them out.

In a sign that the protests are starting to affect commerce, French cosmetics companyL'Oréal [size=1.3]OR.FR -0.68% banned its staff from business travel to Hong Kong until next week, the first major international company to publicly acknowledge concern around the city's turmoil.

Daytime temperatures Tuesday hit 86 degrees Fahrenheit before giving way to loud thunderstorms in the evening. Protesters stayed out, already wielding umbrellas to shield against the sun as well as pepper spray. Organizers expected the largest number of people in the streets since protests began in earnest on Friday night.

Many demonstrators, such as 67-year-old grandmother Tam Kam Yuk, thought it was particularly important to show support on the eve of a holiday heavy on symbolism. "This is my first time out," she said. "Even though the chances are slim, we should fight for what we want."

For the first time in the latest wave of protests that have largely lacked an organizing authority, student organizers and Occupy Central leaders presented a united front, standing together at a joint news conference to blame Mr. Leung for failing to take residents' wishes for free elections into account and for authorizing the use of tear gas against protesters Sunday night.

"Only if Leung Chun-ying steps down can there be a new government to restart constitutional reform," said Chan Kin-man, a co-founder of Occupy Central, the group that has been the main force calling for civil disobedience in Hong Kong.

Alongside him was Alex Chow, leader of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, who threatened to widen protests to government buildings unless Mr. Leung acknowledged protesters' demands that he resign and that he process to reform how Hong Kong should elect its leader is restarted.

The student-led protest group said there had been no communication between it and the government early Wednesday.

Later in the afternoon on Wednesday, Lester Shum, an organizer of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said that the main objective of the group was to defend already-established protest areas, but he reiterated Mr. Chow's threats that protests would escalate if Mr. Leung didn't respond by the end of Thursday to protesters' demands The two-day National Day holiday ends on Thursday in Hong Kong; it runs for a full week on on the mainland.

Chan Kin-man, a co-founder of Occupy Central also reiterated calls for Mr. Leung to resign but stressed that the movement wants to disrupt order in Hong Kong as little as possible. "We are careful to make sure the movement is peaceful and there is no violence," he said in a separate news conference on Wednesday afternoon. "We all want to end this occupation as soon as possible."

Other protesters also worried about the potential consequences of the threat to expand protests.

"If Occupy spreads to more places, it may actually lessen support because there are some people who support the movement but still want to be able to go about their jobs and daily lives," said K.Y. Chan, a 30-year-old office worker who was out with five other family members.

In the face of continuing protests, authorities appear to have several choices. They could allow protests go on in the hope they lose energy before the start of the next workweek, but letting them remain beyond that could be a problem.

"The longer the protesters remain on the street, the more likely that incidents will occur," said Steve Vickers, a former senior officer in Hong Kong's police force.

Forcing out protesters spread across three city districts, some of which are among the most densely populated on earth, would be a challenge for police, security experts said.

"Dispersing any kind of protest should always be the last option you look at," said Adam Leggat, who advises police forces for Densus Group.

Mr. Leung reiterated his confidence in the city's police force and said he doesn't see a need to seek help from Chinese military forces, which has been a concern among many protesters.

"When there are problems in Hong Kong society, our police force should be able to resolve them and we won't need to mobilize the People's Liberation Army," he told reporters.

—Juro Osawa, Ned Levin, Brian Spegele, Isabella Steger and Mia Lamar contributed to this article.