Early Monday morning, some protesters camped out overnight in the Admiralty district. One student said, “I will keep coming back till the police kick us out.”
ADAM FERGUSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
By KEITH BRADSHER and CHRIS BUCKLEY
OCTOBER 5, 2014
HONG KONG — Pro-democracy demonstrators, defiant but their numbers diminished, eased their blockade of Hong Kong government offices and allowed civil servants to return to work Monday morning after the authorities set a deadline for the police to restore access to the buildings.
The concession, along with a preliminary agreement by student protesters to open talks with the government over their demands for democratic elections, appeared to have averted an immediate showdown between the demonstrators and the police. But the compromise was fragile, and protest leaders said the sit-ins would continue while they negotiated a framework for the dialogue.
The sit-in campaign, which entered its 11th day, appeared at a crossroads, plagued by confusion and seesaw reversals among demonstrators who were exhausted and increasingly divided over how to proceed. At least 1,000 protesters remained encamped on the street in front of the government’s headquarters and in a nearby public park overlooking Hong Kong’s harbor. Hundreds more occupied major thoroughfares in other neighborhoods.