BEIJING — The Chinese government on Monday laid down its firm support of Hong Kong’s embattled leader and police force after two months of rolling protests that have flared into violence and inflamed opposition to Chinese rule.
Chinese officials made a strongly worded defense of the local authorities during a rare news conference in Beijing by the government office that oversees policy toward Hong Kong.
It came days after a People’s Liberation Army spokesman hinted that military force could be used to bring to heel the antigovernment demonstrations that have flared in Hong Kong since June. The demonstrations have repeatedly spiraled into violent melees as smaller groups of more confrontational protesters have faced off with police officers who have used tear gas and clubs against them, including this past weekend.
“Hong Kong cannot afford to have instability,” Yang Guang, a spokesman for the Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, told reporters. “Should the chaos continue, it is the entire Hong Kong society that will suffer.”
In his opening remarks at the news briefing, Mr. Yang expressed support for the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, and the police, who have come under criticism for what protesters say is an excessive use of force against demonstrators.
Mr. Yang also said the local government should work on addressing economic issues including challenges with employment and schooling, a housing crisis, and the rising cost of living.
The news briefing appeared aimed at dousing the wave of opposition in Hong Kong — the most sustained challenge to China’s hold over the territory since 1997, when Britain returned it to Chinese sovereignty.
The protests crystallized around opposition to a proposed legal bill that would have opened the way to extraditions from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland. Many Hong Kongers distrust the Chinese mainland’s courts and police, which are controlled by the Communist Party, and opposition was widespread.
After huge demonstrations early in June, Mrs. Lam, the Beijing-backed chief executive of Hong Kong, suspended the proposed law indefinitely. But the protesters have continued taking to the streets of Hong Kong every week, especially on weekends, demanding a full withdrawal of the legislation and voicing a wider array of grievances.
Mrs. Lam has refused to make any further concessions and her advisers have indicated that the administration is confident that it can ride out further protests, despite the escalating unrest and signs that the economy could suffer.
By emphasizing its support for Mrs. Lam yet also emphasizing her responsibility in upholding the law, the central officials also seemed to offer another message: that it was now up to Mrs. Lam, her administration and the police to put an end to the months of strife.
Political tensions and the worsening trade war between the United States and China have already driven down Hong Kong stocks more than 5 percent since early April. Hong Kong’s shares were down more than 1 percent midday on Monday, with property companies taking the biggest hit.
China had promised to give Hong Kong wide-ranging autonomy after 1997, including independent courts and much greater freedoms than in mainland China. But many Hong Kong residents say their city’s distinctive status has been sharply eroded, especially under Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012.
The demonstrators are increasingly angered by the lack of democratic government, a ruling class that has become more beholden to Beijing than to Hong Kong, and with what protesters and some experts have said are excessively heavy-handed methods used by the police to subdue crowds.
But the Chinese government and its supporters in Hong Kong have focused their outrage on the demonstrators, especially those who have attacked government buildings and hurled bricks and steel poles at the phalanxes of police. The anger from Beijing grew after protesters vandalized the outside of the Chinese government liaison office in Hong Kong, including throwing paint on the national emblem.
The cycle of protests and forceful police response continued over the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds of demonstrators who had come out to denounce a mob attack on protesters and what they say is a police force that acts without accountability.
On Monday, the Chinese government defended the city’s police force. “We understand the huge pressure facing the Hong Kong police and their families, and would like to salute the Hong Kong police who have been fearlessly sticking to their posts and fulfilling their duties against all odds,” Mr. Yang said.
Chinese official media reports have suggested that nefarious “hostile Western forces” — rather than heartfelt anger among Hong Kong residents — are behind the protests. And they have also defended the Hong Kong police, and even urged them to take more forceful measures.
“Hong Kong police must no longer be like gentle nannies when they’re enforcing the law,” an editorial in the overseas edition of People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s main newspaper, said on Monday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/world/asia/china-hong-kong.html
2019-07-29 07:34:22Z
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