Hong Kong's leader Leung Chun-ying's announcement on Thursday that he is willing to open talks with representatives of the thousands of students and young people who are thronging the city's streets is welcome. It is the first tacit acknowledgement by the former British colony's authorities – and implicitly Beijing – that the protests represent something more than the "US plot" which China has tried to characterise the movement as.
Unfortunately, the rider from Leung that the talks take place within the framework of the contested decision to give China’s leadership the right to vet candidates for 2017 city elections suggests that he is just playing for time. Protesters have said they will attend the talks, but continue the street demonstrations and may escalate them if the discussions go nowhere. Their calls for his resignation stand.
The restraint displayed by police for most of last week began to break down at the weekend as crowds were again attacked with tear gas and pepper spray. The earlier restrained response should not be seen as a measure of weakness, but a calculation that the demonstrators will begin, as some have, to weary and return home. Beijing has read the protesters' welcome determination to remain peaceful as a sign the movement can be contained peacefully. The protests' ability to infect mainland China with a democratic virus has been carefully circumscribed by a publicity ban on the Hong Kong events and the arrests of civil rights activists impertinent enough to pass on the word of what is happening.
The students, however, deserve more vocal international support. What price now Deng Xiaoping's promise to Hong Kong of a democratic regime? What price that promise of "one country, two systems"? Beijing must be called to account at international forums such the UN for its bad faith. And signals of abject deference to its feelings, like the South African government's ban on a visit by the Dalai Lama, must become a thing of the past.