Striking students marched on Hong Kong's financial district Wednesday, taking their protest for greater democratic rights to the commercial centre for the first time. Student groups are currently spearheading a civil disobedience campaign by a coalition of democracy activists protesting against a recent decision by Beijing to vet who can stand for the city's top post at the next election.
University students began a week-long class boycott on Monday, rallying a crowd that organisers said was 13,000-strong on a campus in the north of the city and breathing new life into a movement that had been stunned by Beijing's hard-line stance. On Tuesday the students moved their protest to a public park outside the main legislative complex of the semi-autonomous Chinese city, briefly mobbing current Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying as he exited the building.
Around 500 students and supporters Wednesday made their way from Tamar Park to Central business district, where many big international companies are based. Shouts of "We want democracy!" amplified by bullhorns echoed around the district famously dominated by towering skyscrapers.
"This march is to show the rich, the people working in Central, the people with real power in Hong Kong, that they can't ignore this grassroots movement," said Nathaniel Siu, 18, an applied social science student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Siu said his mother, who works in one of the office buildings along the protest route, does not approve of his activism and dinner conversations have become increasingly awkward at home.
"Walking to Central shows more people we really care about democracy, that we're serious. We're not just sitting in a park anymore," said Tiffany Fong as she pointed a handheld fan at her face in the humid weather. The students ended their march without incident, gathering back in Tamar Park where regular lectures are being held. Occupy Central, a prominent grassroots pro-democracy group, has vowed to take over Central if its demand that Hong Kongers be allowed to nominate candidates for leader is not met.
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