Hundreds of student activists camped overnight at major protest sites in Hong Kong as the democracy movement sought to regather momentum after the government called off talks with its leaders aimed at defusing unrest in the global financial hub.

Protests escalated late last month, after Beijing’s decision on August 31 to impose conditions for nominations that would effectively stop pro-democracy candidates from contesting an election of the city’s chief executive set for 2017.

The occupation movement suffered a noticeable dip in support over the past week, but strong crowds of over ten thousand returned on Friday evening for a series of rallies in the former British colony.

By yesterday afternoon, many protesters were coming back again to join the stalwarts who had camped overnight.

“Hong Kong is my home, we are fighting for Hong Kong’s future, our future,” Lawrence Chan, said a 23 year-old media studies student, who has participated in the protests from the outset.

Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said on Thursday that the government had called off talks with the students because of their persistent calls to escalate action.

“It seems like they (the government) don’t want to (have a) conversation with us. But I think this amount of people shows that we really want to solve the problem with the government,” said Kiki Choi, a 25-year-old art teacher among the protesters.

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