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HONG KONG, May 4 (China Daily / ANN) – The return of lawlessness and violence to the streets of Hong Kong during the Labor Day holiday has drawn widespread criticism and spread concern throughout the city.
The four-day holiday, which began Thursday, has seen crowds of protesters clash with police in protests scattered across the city, in defiance of the edict of social estrangement. Gasoline bombs were thrown at a police vehicle on Friday night, and police seized 10 kilograms of flammable materials, chemicals and other equipment used to make bombs.
A spokesperson for the Central People’s Government Liaison Office accused the perpetrators of deliberately undermining the city’s rule of law, regardless of the suffering of the Hong Kong people.
In an online statement released Saturday, the spokesman warned that Hong Kong faces an abysmal future if criminals roam the city streets unhindered.
Hong Kong’s chief administrative secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said hope for an economic recovery and a return to prosperity had been clouded by illegal behavior during the holidays.
In his blog on Sunday, the city’s second-highest ranking official said a small group of radicals was hell-bent on destroying Hong Kong to further their own political goals.
The city’s economy faces unprecedented challenges. The latest government forecasts predict the economy will shrink by 4 to 7 percent this year, far worse than the forecast for a 0.5 to 1.5 percent contraction in February.
Financial secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said current economic conditions were the worst since the city began recording its economic performance in the 1960s.
Hong Kong residents also expressed concern about the renewed violence.
Taxi driver Leung Tat-chong said that no one wants to see another round of violent protests and deepen social divisions, including those who had previously supported anti-government protests.
He said some taxi drivers, who supported the riots last year, said they now hoped that people would stop creating chaos on the streets and that the people of Hong Kong would no longer suffer after nearly a year of social unrest.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the gasoline bomb attack on Friday night. He is one of 1,400 underage protesters arrested for his roles in the street violence that erupted in June.
The Liaison Office spokesman said the radicalization of youth came at the sacrifice of their future and accused opposition politicians in Hong Kong of inciting youth to violate the law.
Wong Kwan-yu, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, accused opposition lawmakers of failing to take a clear position against violence and, on occasions, seems to glorify it.
Hong Kong will remain divided if young people are not told to say no to violence, Wong said.
The Liaison Office also condemned the interference of foreign politicians and organizations in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
The conviction came after some politicians and organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom opposed measures to enact national security laws as required by the Hong Kong Basic Law.
The Liaison Office rejected his claims that the Hong Kong protests were peaceful.
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