HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong is facing its “most severe situation” since its handover from British rule in 1997 following weeks of demonstrations and the central government is considering what measures to take next, the head of Beijing’s Cabinet office responsible for the territory said yesterday.
Zhang Xiaoming was speaking to Hong Kong residents attending a seminar in the mainland city of Shenzhen just across the border from the Asian financial hub that has been wracked by daily protests against the administration of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
Those protests are getting increasingly violent and having “an increasingly broad impact on society,” Zhang told the 500 attendees, who included members of the Hong Kong and central government legislative and advisory bodies.
“It can be said that Hong Kong is facing the most severe situation it has faced since the handover,” Zhang said.
Officials in Beijing were “highly concerned” and studying the situation to make a determination and decide on measures to take, he said.
Hong Kong was returned to China under the framework of “one country, two systems,” which promised the city political, civil, and economic freedoms not allowed under Communist Party rule on the mainland.
However, many Hong Kong residents feel Beijing has been increasingly encroaching on their freedoms. The protests were set off by proposed extradition legislation that if passed would have allowed some criminal suspects to be sent to China, where critics say they could face possible torture and unfair trials.
China so far has not visibly intervened in the situation, though in editorials and statements from officials it has condemned demonstrators and protest organizers as criminals, clowns, and “violent radicals” and alleged that they have inflamed by politicians from the US, Taiwan, and elsewhere.
Speculation that the military could be deployed grew after Chinese officials pointed to an article in Hong Kong law that allows troops already stationed in the city to help with “public order maintenance” at the Hong Kong government’s request.
Hong Kong authorities have said they don’t anticipate any need to bring in troops or police from China to help impose order.
