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| Hong Kong Government Says It Has Withdrawn Riot Police | Hong Kong Government Says It Has Withdrawn Riot Police |
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| HONG KONG — The Hong Kong government said on Monday that it had pulled back the riot police from roads across the city where thousands of furious residents have blocked traffic, a day after the police used tear gas and batons to break up a student-led demonstration. | HONG KONG — The Hong Kong government said on Monday that it had pulled back the riot police from roads across the city where thousands of furious residents have blocked traffic, a day after the police used tear gas and batons to break up a student-led demonstration. |
| The government urged the protesting residents to end their street sit-ins so that life in this busy commercial city could return to normal. | The government urged the protesting residents to end their street sit-ins so that life in this busy commercial city could return to normal. |
| Despite the announcement, some police officers with riot shields and other crowd-control equipment remained near the protesters who were occupying a main road in the Admiralty area, home to the government’s offices and a focus of the demonstrators’ anger. About two dozen officers guarded a pedestrian overpass that provides access to the government buildings, and other officers were resting nearby. | |
| The protesters seized control of busy thoroughfares at several points across Hong Kong on Sunday night. Although the sit-ins had shrunk by Monday morning, thousands of people remained in the streets, many of them wearing surgical masks and goggles in anticipation that the police would try to disperse them with tear gas or pepper spray. | |
| The statement by the government appeared to allay such fears, for now at least. | The statement by the government appeared to allay such fears, for now at least. |
| “Because the residents who have assembled on the roadways have largely returned to calm, the riot police have already withdrawn,” said an unidentified spokesman for the government. The spokesman “urged the assembled residents to maintain calm and to peacefully disperse.” | “Because the residents who have assembled on the roadways have largely returned to calm, the riot police have already withdrawn,” said an unidentified spokesman for the government. The spokesman “urged the assembled residents to maintain calm and to peacefully disperse.” |
| But in Admiralty, many demonstrators said they were determined to stay until the city’s top leader, Leung Chun-ying, resigned and answered their demands for democratic elections to choose his successor. | |
| “I came out after I watched the television last night of the police attacking the students,” said Agnes Yip, a sales worker in her 20s who had slept overnight on an expressway at Admiralty. | “I came out after I watched the television last night of the police attacking the students,” said Agnes Yip, a sales worker in her 20s who had slept overnight on an expressway at Admiralty. |
| “We won’t leave until we have a dialogue between the government and the people,” she said. “We’ll stay all day at least, and then tomorrow.” | “We won’t leave until we have a dialogue between the government and the people,” she said. “We’ll stay all day at least, and then tomorrow.” |
| The United States Consulate in Hong Kong on Monday urged all sides to “refrain from actions that would further escalate tensions,” adding, “We do not take sides in the discussion of Hong Kong’s political development.” The statement appeared intended to answer Chinese officials who in the past have accused Washington of fomenting unrest in Hong Kong and who were expected to attribute the protests to interference by the West. | |
| The Hong Kong Exchange’s benchmark Hang Seng index fell as much as 2.31 percent and was still down 2 percent at midday Monday. Markets elsewhere in Asia were largely unmoved, with the Nikkei in Japan, Kospi in Korea and Shanghai indexes all up less than 0.5 percent. |