Merchants losing patience
HONG KONG— If commerce is the lifeblood of this deal- making metropolis, Ben Pui was having none of it Saturday, idling behind his glass counter filled with exotic medicinal herbs.
“Business is down 90%,” said Pui, whose pharmacy is across from one of the most heated sites of Hong Kong’s protests, in the densely packed neighborhood known as Mong Kok. “It’s just crazy. A lot of stores could close. The protesters aren’t being rational. They should go stay at the government offices.”
As demonstrations for democratic reform reached their seventh day, Hong Kong’s business community was finding it increasingly hard to stomach the widespread disruptions.
The Hang Seng Index saw a steep decline last week. Banks closed branches near demonstration sites. And luxury retailers were starved for mainland Chinese tourists, who have been prevented by nervous leaders in Beijing from visiting HongKong during one of the territory’s prime holiday seasons.
A Hong Kong- based economist at ANZ Banking Co., an Australian and New Zealand lender, estimated that sales at luxury stores were down 70% since the holiday started Oct. 1, amounting to a decline of $ 285 million.
The Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades estimated that business would drop 30% over the holiday, according to news reports.
High- end hotels near the primary protest sites on Hong Kong Island are also experiencing disruptions. The Upper House, an ultratrendy boutique hotel in the business district Admiralty, canceled its anniversary party Wednesday, deciding it was “prudent to have as fewpeople in the area as possible,” according to an email sent to guests.
On Friday, Hong Kong’s financial secretary, John Tsang, called for the demonstrations to end, saying any prolonged unrest could result in “permanent damage” to the city’s economy.
That was of little consequence to protesters in Mong Kok on Saturday, many of whom were still smarting from clashes a day earlier with their opposition, a sometime menacing band of middle- aged men who were in some cases shown to have ties to criminal gangs known as triads, according to police.
“I understand the inconvenience this is causing the
‘ Business is down 90%. It’s just crazy. A lot of stores could close. The protesters aren’t being rational.’
— Ben Pui, whose pharmacy is across from a main protest site
shops, butwe’re trying toget a direct response from the government. Until they do that, we’ll stay here,” said MattsonYeung, a21- year- old communications major at Hong Kong Baptist University, who wore a construction helmet and stationed himself in a blocked intersection ordinarily bustling with traffic.
On three corners of the intersection were branches for Citibank, HSBC and Shanghai Commercial Bank. Allwere shuttered behind metal gates.
The unrest was sparked by the announcement that Beijing would vet all candidates for chief executive in the elections of 2017 instead of giving residents greater say.
But the spillover of anger is also driven by long- standing grievances, not the least of which is the belief that Beijing is flooding the city with speculative money that has caused housing prices to skyrocket and made it harder for many residents to get by.
Resentment toward mainlanders has grown. In Mong Kok on Saturday, demonstrators demanded that their hecklers produce Hong Kong identification cards, suspecting that many came from across the border.
Shouting between the two sides, punctuated by profanity, erupted throughout the day next to barricades erected by the protesters.
“You don’t have to work? You have money to blow,” an enraged middle- aged woman shouted to demonstrators.
Fresh- faced students, many carrying neon colored backpacks, coached one another not to argue back and to avoid confrontation.
“Just ignore them,” one student said, under a tarp where supplies such as bottledwater and bread vied for space with exhausted protesters. One sat amid the chaos and read her textbook: “Introduction to Financial Accounting.”