More developers voice support for HKSAR govt
An increasing number of Hong Kong-based real estate companies are voicing their support for the special administrative region’s government and opposition to violent protests, raising alarm over the devastating impact the unrest will have on the local economy.
On Tuesday, 41 developers belonging to the Real Estate Developers Association (REDA) of Hong Kong issued a joint statement voicing their opposition toward increasingly violent protests and vandalism in the city, saying these incidents are seriously encroaching on Hong Kong’s core value of the rule of law and increasing the economic downward pressure on the city.
Experts said more entities have voiced their support for the SAR government in recent days.
“The speech by Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, at a Shenzhen symposium has had a huge social impact and big real estate developers have stepped forward to voice their stance. They did not do this even during the Occupy Central movement” in 2014, an insider said.
On August 7, Zhang said at a symposium in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, held to discuss the situation in Hong Kong, that the protests in the SAR bore the features of a “color revolution,” and urged more people to stand up and speak out for justice to break “a dreadful silence.”
The REDA immediately issued a statement condemning the escalating violence in the city, with a total of 17 signatories in the August 8 statement. Tuesday’s statement, which saw the number of signatories increase to 41, used harsher words.
Dong Shaopeng, a Chinese expert, said that some major firm in Hong Kong have taken an ambiguous attitude on political matters, which is a disease of society and should be criticized.
The cultivation of Hong Kong’s business environment should not be solely up to the nation or the SAR government. Major business entities also have a responsibility to maintain stability instead of taking nearly two months to issue a statement, Dong noted.