Carrie Lam says protests are pushing city to verge of ‘extremely dangerous situation’
Hong Kong’s embattled pro-Beijing leader yesterday said that pro-democracy protesters are trying to “destroy” the city, in a dramatic escalation of rhetoric as the financial hub is rocked by months of rallies and clashes.
Protests and clashes with police have pushed the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city to a “very dangerous situation”, chief executive Carrie Lam said, as she struck a defiant tone as strikes and travel chaos hit the city. Mrs Lam has maintained a low profile as two months of unprecedented protests have raged. But yesterday, she held a press conference – her first in more than two weeks – as activists launched a civil disobedience campaign against the city’s transport network, part of an attempted city-wide strike.
Mrs Lam, showed no sign of backing down or ceding to protester demands for greater democratic freedoms and an independent inquiry into Police violence. Instead, she condemned the increasingly violent and confrontational tactics adopted by protesters in recent weeks.
“Such extensive disruptions in the name of certain demands or uncooperative movement has seriously undermined Hong Kong’s law and order and are pushing our city, the city that we all love and many of us helped to build, to the verge of a very dangerous situation,” she said at a press conference. Widespread disruptions and violence, she said, were putting Hong Kongers “in a state of great anxiety” and she vowed to continue cracking down.