Hong Kong ours for ever, says Beijing

Beijing has dismissed the prodemocracy parties’ landslide victory in the Hong Kong local election as an irrelevance and warned that it would not tolerate the protests indefinitely.

Carrie Lam, the territory’s chief executive, promised to ‘‘reflect’’ on Sunday’s humiliating result but Chinese politicians insisted that they would not change course. ‘‘The most urgent task Hong Kong faces is to end violence and the chaos and to restore order,’’ Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said. ‘‘Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong. Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs.’’

Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, warned: ‘‘Any attempt to mess up Hong Kong, or even damage its prosperity and stability, will not succeed.’’

The Chinese state media have yet to report the final results of the district council elections, in which pro-democracy candidates won 385 of the 452 seats, a stunning rebuke to Beijing after five months of unrest.

The power of the councils is limited but in the past pro-beijing candidates have been able to argue that they were better placed to deliver local services. On Sunday scores of such candidates were defeated by those from the ‘‘pan-democrat’’ coalition of parties, many of whom have been on the frontline of the protests.

Pro-democracy politicians now control 17 of the former colony’s 18 district councils. A record number of voters, 2.94 million, cast ballots.

Pressure mounted on Lam to resign, as pro-establishment candidates blamed her for their losses. ‘‘I hope the government will deeply reflect on its work, especially its work on restoring law and order over the past few months,’’ said Starry Lee, chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the largest pro-beijing political party.

A local news site said Beijing might reconsider its backing for Lam. The site, hk01.com, said Beijing had misjudged Hong Kongers, hoping that they would turn against the increasingly violent protests. ‘‘Faced with such shocking results from the district council elections Beijing is certain to reassess the situation in Hong Kong and it will be an option to consider if Carrie Lam should stay,’’ a source told the site.

The Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times insisted yesterday, however, that the majority of Hong Kong people were tired of violence and wanted to rebuild public order. ‘‘Winning more seats by the pro-democracy camp does not equate to the support of violent protests by Hong Kong voters,’’ its editorial said. It also suggested that foreign forces had played a role in the outcome.

Lam, whose proposed extradition law in the summer incited the protests, struck a more conciliatory note. She said that the government respected the results and wished ‘‘the peaceful, safe and orderly situation to continue. Quite a few are of the view that the results reflect people’s dissatisfaction with the current situation and the deep-seated problems in society,’’ Lam said in a statement. The government would ‘‘listen to the opinions of members of the public humbly and seriously reflect’’.

There are precedents for unpopular chief executives quitting. Tung Chee-hwa, the first leader after the 1997 handover, stepped down in 2005, two years after more than 500,000 people demanded his resignation over proposed national security legislation. CY Leung became a oneterm chief executive after the 2014 Umbrella Movement, the precursor to today’s protests.

Beijing is unlikely, however, to yield to other demands by protesters, especially calls for universal suffrage. Documents from the Communist Party’s latest plenary session call for tighter controls over the territory, making further confrontation all but inevitable.

The winners did not wait long to demonstrate their solidarity with protesters at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who have been sealed off by riot police for eight days.

Jimmy Sham, 32, newly elected to the Sha Tin district council and one of the prominent figures of the democracy movement, called the police tactic at the campus ‘‘a form of torture’’ and urged Lam to withdraw the officers from the university. In a statement fellow district councillors said that humanitarian aid including food should be provided to the protesters amid growing fears for their mental and physical wellbeing.

– The Times

‘‘Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong. Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs.’’ Geng Shuang Chinese foreign ministry spokesman