Hong Kong leader forced to leave address, offers no olive branch
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam had to abandon her policy speech in the legislature on Wednesday because of jeering lawmakers but later offered no direct olive branch to protesters, hoping instead to ease resentment by building public housing.
Lam, who had to broadcast the annual address via a video link after the rowdy scenes in the city’s assembly, hoped to restore confidence in her administration and address discontent after four months of often violent anti-government protests.
She had to halt her initial attempts to deliver the address after pro-democracy lawmakers called out for “five demands, not one less” and projected the protest rallying cry onto a backdrop behind her.
The protesters’ demands include universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into what they say has been excessive force by police in dealing with demonstrations.
In her policy statement, Lam was unapologetic about her government’s response to the protests, which has seen her introduce colonial-era emergency laws and riot police fire thousands of rounds of tear gas and hundreds of rubber bullets at brick and petrol-bomb throwing activists.
“Any acts that advocate Hong Kong’s independence and threaten the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests will not be tolerated,” she said. “Despite the stormy times and overwhelming difficulties Hong Kong is experiencing, I believe that so long as we accurately adhere to the principle of ‘one country, two systems’, we will be able to get out of the impasse.”
The protesters are angry at what they see as Beijing’s tightening grip on Hong Kong, which was guaranteed 50 years of freedoms under the “one country, two systems” formula under which Britain returned the city to China in 1997.
Beijing rejects the charge and accuses Western countries, especially the United States and Britain, of stirring up trouble. The unrest poses the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. He warned that any attempt to divide China would be crushed.
Lam later told a news conference that she had held “closed door” meetings with some members of the protest movement and when the unrest ended she would hold more to address the political situation.