DHAKA: US president Barack Obama said on Monday the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong were a complex issue and the primary US message was to make sure violence was avoided.

Short of denouncing China’s handling of the crisis, Obama said the United States would not stop speaking out about human rights in China and the situation in Hong Kong because of US interests there.

‘We don’t expect China to follow an American model in every instance but we’re going to continue to have concerns about human rights...Our primary message has been to make sure that violence is avoided,’ he said on a visit to Beijing, reports The Straits Times.

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have occupied economically and politically important districts in the Chinese-controlled city for the past six weeks.

Led by a restive generation of students, the protesters are demanding fully-democratic elections for the city’s next chief executive in 2017, not the vote between pre-screened candidates that Beijing has said it will allow.

BDST: 1820 HRS, NOV 10, 2014