FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam addresses a news conference in Hong Kong, China September 5, 2019. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
September 10, 2019
HONG KONG (Reuters) – An escalation of violence cannot solve social issues in Hong Kong, the leader of the Chinese-ruled city, Carrie Lam, said on Tuesday, adding that she deeply regretted interference by foreign parliaments in the Asian financial hub’s matters.
Lam was speaking after another weekend of sometimes violent clashes in the former British colony, with police firing tear gas to disperse protesters in cat-and-mouse skirmishes, at times smashing windows and starting street fires. [nL3N25Z04T]
After three months of unrest, Lam last week withdrew a controversial extradition bill that had triggered the protests, but the gesture failed to appease many demonstrators, who are using the popularity of the movement to revive old grievances.
Chinese officials have accused foreign forces of trying to hurt Beijing by creating chaos in Hong Kong and warned other nations against interfering in the territory, saying the situation is an “internal affair”.
On Monday, former U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the anti-government protests were “not an internal” Chinese matter and the United States should offer at least moral support to the demonstrators. [nL2N2600R0]
Anger over the now-shelved extradition bill has reinvigorated public opposition to Beijing that had dwindled after 2014, when authorities faced down a pro-democracy movement that occupied streets for 79 days in the central business district.
Many initially peaceful protests in the past three months have degenerated into encounters between baton-wielding riot police and activists, leading to scores of injuries and about 1,300 arrests.
The protests, beamed live to the world since June, have prompted some of the city’s powerful tycoons to appeal for calm.
In his first speech mentioning the unrest, billionaire Li Ka-shing urged political leaders to offer young people an olive branch, calling them “masters of our future”, according to an online video of remarks to a small crowd during a monastery visit on Sunday.
Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that guarantees freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland. Many Hong Kong residents fear Beijing is eroding that autonomy. China denies the accusation of meddling in the city.
(Reporting By Clare Jim, Farah Master, Donny Kwok, Noah, Sin, James Pomfret, Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Clarence Fernandez)
