Hong Kong leader’s speech disrupted
BEIJING — Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam stood at the front of the Legislative Council, lips pursed in disgruntled silence as the sound of screaming protesters clashing with police filled the chamber.
Pro-democratic lawmakers were protesting her policy address, an annual speech in which the special administrative region’s leader outlines policy initiatives for the coming year.
Lam tried twice to give her speech on Wednesday morning but was blocked by protesting lawmakers demanding her resignation. They blasted a recording of protesters fighting with police, drowning out her voice. One legislator projected the words “Five demands, not one less,” in giant black-and-white text on her face and the wall behind her.
Another clambered onto a table, raising a picture of Lam with bloodied hands and chanting the same slogan, a reference to the demands for police accountability and government reform that have animated more than four months of mass protests.
Several wore masks of Chinese President Xi Jinping, taunting a recent mask ban invoked under emergency law that has sparked fears of excessive executive power in the name of controlling political unrest.
In mainland China, state TV channels abruptly cut live broadcasts of the speech and switched to soothing footage of green mountains in rural China.
An hour later, local TV broadcast a pre-recorded video of Lam’s prepared speech. A bright red Chinese flag and a Hong Kong flag hung in the background.
“It looks like either an alQaida address or a government in exile which cannot deliver its policy in parliament,” said pro-democratic lawmaker Au Nok-Hin.
When Lam finally spoke, she announced 200 new initiatives including aggressive measures to claim land from private developers, build 10,000 new homes in three years, provide subsidies to students and low-income households, and thus ease the economic challenges that she said were at the root of recent unrest.
“Hong Kong will soon be able to emerge from the storm and embrace the rainbow,” Lam said.
She did not address protesters’ demands for political change but promised to hold a live Facebook Q&A on Thursday evening.
Eric Lai, vice convener of the Civil Human Rights Front, a coalition that has organized peaceful marches, said Lam’s economic initiatives failed to address the Hong Kong protests’ cause.
“You cannot feed us and beat us at the same time and ask us to feel hopeful for the future of Hong Kong,” he said.