Hong Kong's student protesters told Chinese President Xi Jinping that they don't want a revolution and their civil disobedience was triggered by the city's government misrepresenting local views on electoral reform.
Hong Kong's government "should be held responsible," the Hong Kong Federation of Students and activist group Scholarism said late Saturday in an open letter on the federation's Facebook page. The students said they don't want a "color revolution," a term Chinese state media use for uprisings such as the so-called Arab Spring.
Activists pressing for freer elections and Hong Kong's government are locked in the city's worst political crisis since China regained the former British colony in 1997. The city's No. 2 official, Carrie Lam, said Saturday that the government can't talk with the students unless they recognize the legal framework China laid down for a 2017 vote in the city.