Hong Kong Protesters Divided Over Use of Traffic as a Weapon

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/world/asia/hong-kong-protesters-divided-over-use-of-traffic-as-a-weapon.html

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Disappointed that Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, refused to step down late Thursday, protesters who were camped outside his office argued among themselves about the wisdom of escalating their conflict with the authorities by completely blocking a road that serves as a main artery in the city.

According to journalists and bloggers who documented the debate on social networks, dozens of protesters eventually occupied parts of Lung Wo Road for some time early Friday, despite the efforts of a larger number to keep the road open to traffic.

While thousands of students and other protesters have filled Hong Kong’s streets for days, the demonstrators have agreed to open what they call “humanitarian corridors” at various points, to allow emergency vehicles to pass through the sit-ins and avoid the kind of chaotic traffic that could cost them popular support.

After the first attempt to occupy the road was stopped by a majority of protesters, two of their young leaders, Joshua Wong and Lester Shum, urged those gathered outside the chief executive’s office not to sabotage their movement by closing down the road which connects the island city to the mainland, The South China Morning Post reported. “This is a war for public support,” Mr. Wong said. “We must show Leung that we have the support of the masses on our side.”

“Lung Wo Road is the only transport link between Kowloon and Hong Kong,” Mr. Shum said. “It will backfire and all the support garnered in the last week will go to waste.”

Even before the protests began, opponents of the Occupy Central movement, who call themselves the city’s Silent Majority, commissioned a traffic study that warned in melodramatic terms that Hong Kong could descend into a dystopian nightmare if roads were blocked.

While images of Hong Kong’s streets packed with thousands of peaceful protesters — waving mobile phones, sheltering beneath umbrellas and singing — would seem to belie that dark vision of the city under occupation by pro-democracy protesters, the movement’s organizers seemed eager not to give the authorities any excuse to use force against them by defying police orders not to completely close Lung Wo Road.