Violent clashes erupted in Hong Kong early Sunday for a second night, deepening a sense of impasse between a government with limited options and a pro-democracy movement increasingly willing to confront police. The worst political crisis in Hong Kong since Britain handed the free-wheeling city back to China in 1997 entered its fourth week with no sign of a resolution despite talks scheduled on Tuesday between the government and student protest leaders. Beijing has signalled through Hong Kong’s leaders that it is not willing to reverse a decision in late August that effectively denies the financial hub the full democracy the protesters are demanding for an election in 2017. Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leader Leung Chun-ying, who has so far resisted calls to quit, said more time was needed to broker what he hoped would be a non-violent end to the upheaval. “To work out a solution, to put an end to this problem, we need time. We need time to talk to the people, particularly young students,” he told Hong Kong’s ATV Television. Hong Kong’s 28,000 strong police have been struggling to contain a youth-led movement that has shown little sign of waning after three weeks. Roughly a thousand demonstrators in the Mong Kok district launched a fresh assault early on Sunday, putting on helmets and goggles before surging forward to grab a line of metal barricades hemming them into a section of road. Scores of riot police had smashed batons at a wall of umbrellas that protesters raised to defend themselves. Amid shouts and hurled insults, violent scuffles erupted before police surged forward with shields, forcing the crowds back. One activist was hit with a flurry of baton blows, leaving him bleeding from a gash in the head. Dozens of people were reportedly injured in the two nights of clashes, including 22 police officers.
