China to weigh in on Hong Kong crisis

AFTER weeks of increasingly violent protests, China’s top policy body on Hong Kong affairs was set to hold an extremely rare press briefing Monday on the crisis engulfing the financial hub, where dozens of protesters were arrested in weekend clashes with police.

What began as a mass display of opposition to an extradition bill two months ago has morphed into a wider pro-democracy movement that has thrown down the most significant challenge to Beijing’s authority since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

While China has issued increasingly shrill condemnations of the protests in the last two weeks, it has largely left the city’s pro-Beijing administration to deal with the situation.

So Monday’s highly unusual press briefing in Beijing by the cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office will be closely watched for any hint of more direct intervention.

In an editorial on Monday, the state-run China Daily newspaper signalled the growing concern in Beijing.

“What is happening in Hong Kong is no longer the airing of real or imagined grievances,” the editorial said.

“It is of the same hue as the colour revolutions that were instigated in the Middle East and North Africa - local anti-government elements colluding with external forces to topple governments utilising modern communication technology to spread rumours, distrust and fear.”

- Another weekend of violence -

Pro-democracy protesters fought a second consecutive day of running battles with police on Sunday evening in a well-heeled residential district of Hong Kong, in some of the most sustained scenes of violence witnessed so far.

The clashes took place close to the Liaison Office, which represents Beijing in the semi-autonomous territory.

In a statement early Monday, police said 49 “radical protesters” had been arrested for a variety of offences on Sunday saying the crowds were getting “increasingly violent”.