Will China Step in Hong Kong Protests?

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said her government could handle growing violence without intervention by Beijing, but didn’t rule out seeking China’s help or invoking further emergency measures.

“I still strongly feel that we should find the solution ourselves,” Lam told reporters Tuesday before a meeting of the city’s Executive Council. “That’s also the position of the central government that Hong Kong should tackle the problem on our own. But if the situation becomes so bad, then no option should be ruled out if we want Hong Kong to at least have another chance.”

Lam said that her visit to Beijing for China’s National Day parade on Oct. 1 had been brief and didn’t include any business meetings with central government officials.

Lam condemned protesters’ violence and attacks on businesses, after demonstrators vandalized shops and paralyzed the city’s transit system in some of the worst unrest of the past four months. She said authorities would offer support to industries affected by the movement and called for developers and store owners to provide relief measures.

“This kind of violence has become limitless and lawless,” she said. The city government “will use its greatest determination to halt these violent acts,” she said.

Stressing the impact to Hong Kong’s economy after four months of pro-democracy protests, she said that visitor arrivals to the Asian financial hub had dropped by more than 50% year on year during the Oct. 1-6 National Day holiday period, when the city is usually packed with tourists.

The fierce clashes -- and the specter of Beijing deploying its People’s Liberation Army troops in the city -- have drawn condemnation and concern from officials from the U.S., the U.K. and others.

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Beijing that trade talks between the two sides could suffer if the country does anything “bad” to try and end protests in Hong Kong. “They have to do that in a peaceful manner,” he told reporters at the White House.

The weekend’s unrest followed Lam’s decision to ban protesters from wearing masks under a colonial-era law that could also be used to detain and arrest protesters and censor publications. She didn’t rule out the possibility of further measures under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, which was last used more than a half century ago to put down leftist riots.

“We are faced with such a changing situation,” Lam said. “What I can assure you is the government will take a very serious view and very careful assessment before the ERO is to be invoked again.”

The city’s subway network shut down over the weekend as radical protesters clashed with police, throwing Molotov cocktails and bricks at police officers and vandalizing banks and train stations. Many businesses shut down, and video footage showed a taxi driver dragged out and beaten by demonstrators after accusations he’d driven into a crowd of protesters.

The dramatic scenes -- including the shooting of a second protester -- were the latest in four months of anti-China demonstrations opposing since-scrapped extradition legislation that have morphed into the most serious challenge to Beijing’s rule since Hong Kong returned to Chinese control in 1997.

Lam has previously took the blame for the “entire unrest,” after withdrawing her ill-fated proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China. Last week, she condemned radical protesters and saying mask ban was required in the face of unending violence.

“It is too early to say that the anti-mask law is not effective. For any new policy or new legislation, it will take time for it to be effectively implemented,” Lam said Tuesday. “If a piece of legislation has been enacted, but people refuse to abide by the law, then of course we have a problem at hand.”

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