In Hong Kong’s leaderless protests, officials don’t know who to talk to

The lack of a clear leader is one of the main reasons the protests have carried on this long and show no end in sight

As a top adviser to Hong Kong’s government, Bernard Chan is searching for any protester who can strike a deal to end more than three months of unrest. In lunches with demonstrators and chats with friends who oppose the government, Chan often hears that the protests would stop if leader Carrie Lam even met two of the five demands. But nobody he meets can guarantee him that others will no longer hit the streets even after she formally withdrew a bill allowing extraditions to China that kicked off the protests in June.

“You alone stopping is not enough — who am I negotiating with?” Chan said in an interview on Friday, before the latest weekend clashes. “I can’t even convince the government to come to the table because they don’t know who we’re dealing with.”

The lack of a clear leader is one of the main reasons the protests have carried on this long and show no end in sight. For demonstrators, that’s by design: During the 2014 Occupy protests, the government was able to arrest key leaders and throw them in jail. Now the groups guard their anonymity and organize in online platforms like Telegram and LIHKG that are difficult to track..

Read More: Hong Kong Protest