Student leaders in Hong Kong have accepted an invitation to talks with senior government officials to discuss their demands, after days of mass pro-democracy protests.
The territory's chief executive Leung Chun-ying offered the negotiations, shortly before the expiry of a deadline, set by students, who had threatened to occupy government buildings.
China's state media said authorities will not make concessions to the protesters and that their cause is 'doomed to fail'.
The protesters' demands for unfettered elections are 'neither legal nor reasonable', said the People's Daily newspaper, in a defiant front page editorial.
China's parliament, the National People's Congress ruled in August that candidates for Hong Kong elections would be selected by a committee, a move criticised by protesters as 'fake democracy'.
The People's Daily said that: 'Upholding the decision of the standing committee of the National People's Congress is the necessary decision, and the only decision.'
The protests are 'against legal principles, and doomed to fail', it said, adding: 'There is no room to make concessions on important principles.'
Analysts say that Beijing is wary of granting protesters' demands, as it fears that backing down in the face of demonstrations could create a precedent for public protest which would be unacceptable to the Communist leadership.
China's official military newspaper, the People's Liberation Army Daily, reported on its front page that more than 1000 troops in Hong Kong had received 'political training,' stressing loyalty to the Communist party.
The training aimed to 'make the voice of the party the strongest voice in the barracks, and ensure absolute loyalty from the troops,' it said.
Beijing stations soldiers in Hong Kong but local politicians have so far ruled out military intervention.
Posted by Unknown on Friday, October 3, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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