You must punish HK protesters, Xi instructs police
President Xi Jinping has vowed to crack down on rising violence in Hong Kong and blamed protesters’ ‘‘violent acts’’ for destroying the stability and prosperity of the former British colony.
The Chinese leader said yesterday that radical criminals were undermining the one country, two systems principle agreed when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Under that agreement, while Hong Kong was returned as Chinese territory, it retains its own economic and administrative systems, albeit without free elections.
Speaking at a summit in Brazil, Xi said: ‘‘We will firmly support the Hong Kong police to strictly enforce the law and we will firmly support the Hong Kong judiciaries to punish violent criminals in accordance of the law.’’
His remarks came after four days of sharply escalating violence in Hong Kong. Protesters have brought much of the territory to a standstill by destroying parts of rail subway stations, setting fire to a commuter train carriage and setting up barricades across the city.
One protester was shot by police in the torso, a pro-Beijing supporter was set on fire by demonstrators, a 70-year-old cleaner was struck by a brick thrown by a protester, and a 15-year-old boy had to have four hours of surgery after being hit by a rubber bullet. Demonstrators have been shooting arrows at police and hurled Molotov cocktails and bricks. Police have responded with live ammunition.
One senior police officer said that Hong Kong had been pushed to the ‘‘brink of total breakdown’’. All universities and schools have been shut until Monday.
This week has been the most violent since protests began in June.
Carrie Lam, chief executive of Hong Kong, hosted an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday to discuss the feasibility of a curfew and other measures that could be used to counter the violence.
China later denied that Lam was ready to impose a curfew, which had been reported earlier in the state-owned
Now in its sixth month, the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement has gone from large, peaceful rallies to running street fights and a pitched battle on a university campus. Clashes between protesters and riot officers, once limited to weekends and night time, have become an around-the-clock reality this week and they are becoming more unpredictable.
With no immediate political solution in sight, China has granted Hong Kong’s 30,000 police officers exemption from punishment as protesters intensify the violence and disrupt the city’s ability to function as one of the world’s major financial centres.
Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: ‘‘We don’t see the ending. The Hong Kong police have been given more authority by Beijing ... to use violent means to suppress the protests.
‘‘There is a deep-seated contradiction between police and protesters, and this contradiction will be exacerbated, and then Beijing will further restrict the space of one country, two [systems], which will lead to the cycle of protest violence. Nobody sees an end game.’’
Tse Chun-chung, chief superintendent of Hong Kong police public relations, said: ‘‘Many people point their fingers at the police and play the blame game, accusing us of provoking violence in universities and causing social unrest.
‘‘We have stressed repeatedly that police officers are in a reactive mode. If rioters did not commit dangerous and destructive acts, there is no reason for the police to respond with force.
‘‘If anyone still has any wishful thinking that they can achieve their so-called political ideals by using violence, it’s time to wake up.’’
Demonstrators have demanded an independent inquiry into police brutality, along with the resignation of Lam, the release of protesters from jail and free elections.
There is little sign that public sympathy for the protesters is waning in the territory. Residents queued for kilometres in their cars on roads leading to the Chinese University of Hong Kong yesterday to provide bottles of water, blankets, food and masks for protesters who clashed with police there this week.