Hong Kong crisis escalates after mob attack on protesters

HONG KONG—An overnight attack by white-clad assailants apparently targeting pro-democracy protesters raised tensions to new levels in Hong Kong on Monday as China harshly criticized the weekend demonstration, saying “central authority cannot be challenged.”

The Chinese rebuke came after its Hong Kong office was targeted Sunday night by protesters who pelted it with eggs and spray-painted its walls. It made no mention of the violent attack hours later at a subway station by men wielding iron pipes as they beat up people clad in the pro-democracy movement’s black shirts. Dozens were injured.

The attack on China’s Liaison Office by a small group of protesters came after more than 100,000 people marched through the city to demand democracy and an investigation into the use of force by police to disperse crowds at earlier protests.

As protesters made their way home, a gang of men in white shirts descended on a group of them at a subway station. Video of the attack in Hong Kong’s Yuen Long neighborhood showed protesters being beaten by men in white shirts wielding steel pipes and wooden poles. Those under attack retreated into the trains, intimidated by the gangs of men waiting for them outside the turnstiles. The attackers then entered the trains and beat the people inside as they tried to defend themselves with umbrellas. The assailants eventually retreated.

At least 45 people were injured, and 15 remained hospitalized Monday afternoon, including one man in critical condition, the Hospital Authority said.

Subway passengers filmed by Stand News and iCABLE angrily accused police officers of not intervening to protect the demonstrators, who have been critical of the police use of force in recent weeks.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Monday that allegations that police had colluded with the assailants were “unfounded.”

The Sunday night assault on Beijing’s Hong Kong Liaison Office touched a raw nerve in China. China’s national emblem, which hangs on the front of the building, was splattered with black ink. It was replaced by a new one within hours.

The official People’s Daily newspaper, in a front-page commentary on Monday headlined “Central Authority Cannot Be Challenged,” called the protesters’ actions “intolerable.”

“These acts openly challenged the authority of the central government and touched the bottom line of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle,” the government’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said in a statement Sunday.

Lam repeated the same statement to reporters Monday, adding that the vandalism “hurt the nation’s feelings.”

The “one country, two systems” framework, under which the former British colony was returned to China in 1997, allows Hong Kong to maintain a fair degree of autonomy in local affairs. Demonstrators fear the pro-Beijing government in Hong Kong is chipping away at their rights and freedoms, and the weekslong tumult has fueled fears of a more aggressive Chinese response.

In Washington, President Donald Trump said he believes Chinese leader Xi Jinping has acted “very responsibly” in allowing the extended protests to play out in Hong Kong. Asked about China’s handling of the protests, he said that “China could stop them if they wanted.” “I hope that President Xi will do the right thing. But it has been going on a long time,” Trump added, without elaborating.