China calls Hong Kong protesters, allies ‘radicals’
HONG KONG — The Chinese government and its allies in Hong Kong on Tuesday denounced a group of protesters who had stormed the legislature Monday, leading a barrage of criticism that gave the city’s embattled leader a moment of reprieve.
Dozens of protesters had charged and occupied Hong Kong’s legislative office building, breaking glass walls and spraypainting surfaces with slogans on the politically significant anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China from Britain.
On Tuesday, China’s leadership sent a strongly worded warning to the semi-autonomous territory, accusing those protesters of being “extreme radicals” who committed an illegal act “that tramples on the rule of law and jeopardizes social order.”
The decision by some protesters to resort to destructive tactics has momentarily deflected scrutiny and criticism away from Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, and her handling of a contentious bill that triggered some of the largest demonstrations the territory has seen.
But it also raised questions about the effectiveness and political prospects of Lam, who was hand-picked by China.
Lam, whom protesters have urged to resign, told her top advisers in a closed-door meeting at her official residence Tuesday that she intended to serve out her term of office through 2022, said Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker and a member of the Executive Council who was in the meeting.
But her advisers responded bluntly that she needs to work on her handling of Hong Kong’s escalating unrest.
“We all advised her to improve her communication strategy,” said Ip.
As protests have rocked the city, Lam has said several times that she would work harder at reaching out to groups with different political views, but has yet to do so.
For weeks, Lam has appeared unable to quell swelling anger as citizens voiced their discontent with the political leadership in Hong Kong, a former British colony that was handed back to China in 1997.
The protests began as opposition to a bill Lam was pushing that would allow China to extradite Hong Kong citizens. But they quickly morphed into a broader expression of anxiety over China’s encroachment into the territory and the erosion of the civil liberties that set it apart from the rest of China.
While hundreds of thousands of people marched peacefully to demand Lam’s resignation Monday, a core group of other, mostly younger, demonstrators stormed the legislature.
For hours, the police, who had been accused of excessive force in earlier protests, largely stood by, and they made a surprise retreat once protesters began to breach an inner door.
Some questioned why Lam did not urge police to step in sooner.
“Why did she let the people get into the Legislative Council?” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a political scientist at Hong Kong Baptist University. “In what country is the parliament not protected by the police?”
Most leading voices in Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing camp, who hold a majority in the legislature, echoed the Chinese government in condemning the violence.
“This is an insult to the Legislative Council, and an insult to Hong Kong’s rule of law,” said Starry Lee, a pro-establishment lawmaker of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, who called on the government to investigate and bring charges to send a message that “those who break the law need to be punished.”
Other pro-Beijing lawmakers, business groups and the Law Society, a typically pro-establishment group of lawyers that had earlier called for the government to delay passage of the contentious bill, added their voices to the drumbeat of criticism against the demonstrators.
Opposition lawmakers were more sympathetic to the protesters, saying that they had resorted to violence out of desperation over not being heard.
Surprisingly, a few lawmakers from the pro-Beijing camp said the government ought to accept some blame for the mayhem.
James Tien, honorary chair of the pro-establishment Liberal Party, said that by ordering police to stand back, the government was deliberately “letting the students make a fool of themselves.”
“That seems like they were encouraging these violent acts,” he said.