HK leaders: No more violence

Hong Kong leaders and residents called for rejecting a recurrence of violence as antigovernment protesters planned a new round of demonstrations during the Labor Day holiday.

The protesters’ call comes as the COVID-19 outbreak is gradually under control in the city.

“Hong Kong can survive the economic winter caused by the pandemic, but I’m afraid we cannot survive the lingering political impasse and renewed violence,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on her social media page on Thursday.

Echoing Lam’s concern, the city’s No 2 official, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said Hong Kong and its battered economy would be unable to bear a fresh outbreak of violence.

In an interview with local Chinese media, Cheung also rejected the accusation from opposition lawmakers that social distancing measures are a political tactic that aims to suppress people’s freedom of expression in gatherings.

Rallies or gatherings are high-risk events that do no good to anyone during a pandemic, Cheung said, adding that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will take both its anti-pandemic and anti-violence work very seriously to ensure public safety.

An independent appeal board ruled on Wednesday in favor of an earlier police ban of a proposed march scheduled for Friday — Labor Day — citing public health threats.

After losing its appeal, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions said it will set up more than 50 street booths across the city to circulate anti-epidemic tips and show support for the anti-government movement. A few dissatisfied protesters also discussed blocking roads in multiple districts.

As Hong Kong has seen no new coronavirus case in seven of the past 11 days, small-scale protests have returned to the city, with occasional scuffles between protesters and police officers enforcing the public gathering ban.

Arnold Ko, a 32-year-old local insurance worker, said many more companies will go bust if street violence comes back after the pandemic fades away.

“It will take at least half a year for businesses to recover, optimistically. The recurrence of violence will rob the city of the best opportunity to rise again in the post-pandemic era,” said Ko, who has many crossboundary businesses.

Iris, a junior at Hong Kong Baptist University said the protest saga last year had already seriously disrupted her study plans before the unprecedented pandemic.

“I don’t want to see violence again in my last year of college life. What we need is a peaceful, inclusive university campus,” said the 21-year-old, who declined to give her full name.

Bernard Charnwut Chan, convener of the cabinet — Executive Council of Hong Kong, described the coronavirus crisis as “adding fuel to the fire” after the city was rocked by eight months of turmoil.

Nobody can walk free out of this situation now, so people have to set aside disputes to rebuild the city right now, he said in a column.