HK reports reflect West's preconceptions

Hong Kong's government called off a meeting with the leaders of the student "pro-democracy" protests that had been planned for Friday, because it would be "impossible to have a constructive dialogue" with them after they called for an increase in efforts to occupy main protest areas if concessions were not made by the government.

The only surprise there is they seem to have harbored the belief that it was.

The thousands of young people that have been gathering in the streets of Hong Kong and bringing the city to a standstill to protest the decision that the candidates for the chief executive election needed to be approved by the majority of a nominating committee are not old enough to know the political realities of past - and some might say too naive and self-absorbed to understand those of the present.