HK protesters break into city legislature
Central government condemns ‘criminal’ act, seeks probe
A group of protesters in Hong Kong demanding the scrapping of a bill that would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China broke into the city’s legislature, hung the territory’s colonial-era flag and left anti-Beijing graffiti. The Chinese central government condemned the incursion as it backed an investigation by city authorities into the “criminal responsibility of violent offenders.”
BEIJING— China’s central government condemned on Tuesday the ransacking of Hong Kong’s legislature and said it backed the city authorities to investigate the “criminal responsibility of violent offenders.”
The semiautonomous financial hub has been thrown into crisis by weeks of massive demonstrations over a bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland.
Angry youth
But on Monday—the 22nd anniversary of the city’s handover to China—anger spilled over as groups of mostly young, hard-line protesters, broke into the legislative council, where they hung Hong Kong’s colonial-era flag and left anti-Beijing graffiti.
The rallies—including a huge prodemocracy march on Monday—have been largely peaceful while calling on the city’s Beijing-appointed Chief Executive Carrie Lam to resign.
But they have failed to win concessions, with Lam refusing to permanently shelve the extradition law or step down, and by Monday, some hard-line protesters appeared to have reached breaking point and stormed the legislature.
“These serious illegal actions trample on the rule of law in Hong Kong, undermine Hong Kong’s social order and harm the fundamental interests of Hong Kong,” the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, said in a statement by an unnamed spokesperson.
“It is a blatant challenge to the ‘one country, two systems’ bottom line. We express our vehement condemnation against this,” the spokesperson said.
Lam—whose approval ratings are at a record low—condemned “the extreme use of violence,” describing the vandalism as “heartbreaking and shocking.”
Under the terms of the 1997 handover between colonial power Britain to China, Hong Kong is to be governed under its own laws with special rights, including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary until 2047.
Beijing support
The statement said Beijing strongly supported Hong Kong’s government and the police.
The central government “also supports the relevant agencies of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to investigate the criminal responsibility of violent offenders in accordance with the law, to restore normal social order as soon as possible, to protect the personal and property safety of the citizens, and to safeguard Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” it said.