Hong Kong pro-democracy movement at impasse

HONG KONG, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Six weeks after hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong to advocate for democracy, the movement appears to have reached an impasse.

Law professor Benny Tai, who conceived the protest and has served as an adviser to the student protest leaders, told the Washington Post that he intended the protest to be a brief demonstration of civil disobedience.

Instead, the protest became a movement known as "Occupy Central" and "Occupy Hong Kong," fashioned after the Occupy Wall Street protest of attrition.

Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters object to Beijing's plans to allow only approved candidates to run for office in Hong Kong's 2017 elections, regarding the move as a violation of China's "one country, two systems" agreement providing Hong Kong with a specified but ill-defined "high degree of autonomy."

But with the government unwilling to offer concessions, protest numbers have dwindled.

A recent poll by the Hong Kong-based Ming Pao newspaper reported 70 percent of Hong Kong residents are in favor of the protest ending.

It is unclear at what point the protesters will vacate the streets they sporadically occupied.

"The remaining demonstrators find it very difficult to seek an honorable retreat," Tai observed.