Angry Hongkongers today trashed the Tsuen Wan office of pro-Beijing firebrand Junius Ho, who was caught on camera over the weekend glad-handing men linked to the vicious assault of anti-government protesters and everyday commuters at the Yuen Long MTR station last night.
Ho became an easy target of the soaring public outrage over the attacks today after he issued a half-hearted condemnation of the violence in a press conference, while simultaneously referring to the white-shirted thugs who perpetrated the assault as “heroic.”
Responding to online calls to “visit Junius Ho,” protesters surrounded Ho’s office inside a Tsuen Wan shopping mall at around 3pm today and began to turn its exterior windows into a makeshift “Lennon Wall,” festooning them with banners and Post-It notes.
Protesters also defaced a photo of Ho, and pelted the facade with eggs, as anger continued to mount. (The livestream was later taken down, so we had to resort to this Hungarian-language video.)
After about an hour, mask-wearing protesters with metal rods and posts began going to town on the apparently very-well-reinforced glass, shattering it in places.
Finally, at around 4:30pm, protesters managed to dislodge and knock over one of the main windows, according to a livestream of the events by Apple Daily.
At that point, a handful entered the office, ripped out the CCTV camera, and vandalized some certificates they found inside.
As of press time, Ho had not publicly addressed the vandalism.
Ho had previously blamed anti-government protesters for the violence at Yuen Long, which saw dozens of white-clad pro-Beijing thugs — some of whom reportedly claimed to be triads — savagely beat protesters, journalists, and commuters alike following a major demonstration on Hong Kong Island.
“Yuen Long people protect their homes,” Ho said in a press conference today. “I don’t call them ‘heroes’ just because of last night’s incident; I see their values as heroic.”
Ho is no stranger to controversy, having recently circulated unsubstantiated claims that foreign agents were intent on turning Hong Kong into “the next Syria,” and having said in 2017 that independence supporters should be “killed without mercy.”
The violent attacks at Yuen Long — which shocked the city and were roundly condemned, even by several of Ho’s pro-Beijing associates — may not have been the last, however.
This afternoon, users of the Reddit-like forum LIHKG began calling for protests in Yuen Long this weekend, though details remain scant
Meanwhile, organizers of a protest slated for this Saturday on Hong Kong Island cancelled their event, saying they hoped instead that people would support protests in Yuen Long to voice their anger over the attacks.
