To retreat or not to retreat? That was the question for Occupy Central protesters into their eighth night of the civil disobedience movement yesterday.
Pledges to restore access to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's office in Admiralty as well as a section of Nathan Road in Mong Kok came undone within minutes of them being made.
The swift change in plans highlighted a split in strategy among the tens of thousands of demonstrators occupying parts of Hong Kong in protest against Beijing's restrictive reform framework for the 2017 chief executive election.
It remained unclear whether or not protesters would allow 3,000 civil servants into work at government headquarters today, given that the footbridge from Admiralty Centre - the main pedestrian access to the offices - was largely blocked, leaving room for people to pass only in single file.
The offices were closed last week because of a blockade by protesters.
Leung issued an ultimatum on Saturday for access to be reopened by today.
If the protesters retreat, they will be seen as going back on their vow to bring government operations to a standstill. But if they do not, police have said they will clear the crowd outside - and that could result in casualties.
Outside Leung's office yesterday, only a small number of protesters remained - until others learned at 6pm that an agreement had been reached to "return" the road to police.
A protester was seen shaking hands with police after agreeing on the protesters' behalf to retreat from the area.
At news of the planned retreat, protesters elsewhere rushed to the scene. Ben Liu Chi-fung, 20, said: "We strove hard to get this site. We shouldn't give it up without any government decision in favour of us."
In Mong Kok, a group of about 20 protesters who had occupied part of Nathan Road since last Monday also announced their withdrawal at about 6.30pm.
"We don't want to see more people get hurt," protester Daniel Tang said, adding that attacks by anti-Occupy activists over the past few days had deterred them.
But as night fell, others criticised the group for leaving.
"If you want to leave, just leave. Don't try to influence others," one protester, Carlos Leung, said. "Whoever removes our tents and blockades are our enemies."
There were no signs of the crowd in Monk Kok shrinking.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV features opponents of Occupy Central
State broadcaster CCTV has aired footage of Hong Kong protesters for the first time since Occupy Central started its sit-ins a week ago, but only of people opposed to the movement for democracy.
"Holding Hong Kong hostage is not peaceful. Blocking the streets is not democracy," the station quoted a foreigner as saying, without giving his full name. The man said he had been based in Hong Kong for 25 years and claimed to know many who opposed the protests. "Blaming the police for the chaos is hypocrisy because they are the ones who are causing the problem."
Other interviewees in the report complained of disruptions brought by the closure of shops and suspension of school classes.
Meanwhile, other state media continued to round on the civil disobedience movement. Xinhua said the number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong in the first two days of the National Day "golden week" holiday fell 1.7 per cent compared with a year earlier. Many tours were cancelled, it said.
The Communist Party mouthpiece, People's Daily, has published criticism of the movement for five days in a row. In its latest article, Zhi Zhenfeng, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, warned the protests would intensify the polarisation of Hong Kong society. "Occupy Central runs counter to the mainstream opinion of people in Hong Kong," Zhi wrote in his commentary.
Teddy Ng