Beijing’s stance on recent unrest appears largely unchanged after a meeting between National People’s Congress delegates from Hong Kong and the head of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Shenzhen today.
Just a day after representatives of the office called for an end to the city’s long-running protest movement and threw their support behind the local government in restoring order, the message from the office today was much the same, according to delegates who attended the meeting.
“The most important mission right now is to stop with the violence and chaos,” said former Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung, describing the stance put forward by HKMAO Director Zhang Xiaoming today.
She said Zhang also addressed whether the central government would intervene directly in Hong Kong, saying he remained confident that the local government was up to the task of handling the ongoing conflicts.
Leung, however, said that in her own opinion, a People’s Liberation Army intervention, if requested, would not spell the end for the “one country, two systems” framework on which Hong Kong is founded.
Journalists were only allowed to attend the firsts 10 minutes of the meeting, during which Zhang, in his opening remarks, said the recent unrest was the “most severe crisis” Hong Kong has faced since the handover.
“The anti-extradition protests have lasted for 60 days; violent activities are escalating,” Zhang said.
He added that the central government was highly concerned about the situation, and was “studying the events strategically,” hoping that today’s meeting would help to inform policy going forward.
However, the office’s policy appears unchanged from yesterday.
Pro-Beijing lawmaker Michael Tien, who has emerged as a moderate voice inside his camp, had told RTHK that he would be pressing the HKMAO to encourage the local government to completely withdraw the extradition bill that kicked off the protests, and to launch an investigation into police’s use of force — both key demands of protesters.
Tien said he had spoken to protesters in his district during Monday’s city-wide demonstrations, and that the more moderate ones among them had said meeting those two demands would largely satisfy them.
“One of the things that was very clearly stated was that they were there because the government did not accede to their demands, so they feel that their voices are not heard,” he said.
“They agreed with me that if the government accedes to these requests at least half of the supporters at the back would’ve gotten what they want and disappeared,” he added.
It was unclear whether Tien indeed raised that point in today’s meeting — he wasn’t visible in footage of a press conference with delegates afterwards — though if he did, it appeared to have fallen on deaf ears.
According to Tam Yiu-chung, a former chairman of the pro-establishment DAB party who attended the meeting, Zhang appeared to skirt the issue of whether the PLA would intervene in Hong Kong, but cited the late communist leader Deng Xiaoping as saying it had the right to, as China exercises sovereignty over Hong Kong.
