Hong Kong’s ‘unwise policies’ fuelled protests, unrest in city, Hang Lung Properties chairman Ronnie Chan says

Unrest in the city ‘cannot but negatively affect business’, Hang Lung Properties chairman Ronnie Chan says

Protests result of ‘unwise policies made locally and not initiated by Beijing’, Chan says

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Hang Lung Properties chairman Ronnie Chan Chi-chung said on Thursday that the ongoing unrest has negatively affected business and hurt confidence among the international business community. Photo: Tory Ho

Published: 11:52am, 13 Sep 2019Updated: 4:22pm, 13 Sep 2019

Hang Lung Properties chairman Ronnie Chan Chi-chung said the “unwise policies” of Hong Kong’s government had contributed to an atmosphere that sparked protests and civil unrest and are now threatening the city’s business community.

Chan, who is a supporter of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her predecessor Leung Chun-ying, said the unrest “cannot but negatively affect business” and reduce “confidence among the international business community”.

“In the past month and a half, the city has erupted into a tumultuous place. It was the result of unwise policies made locally and not initiated by Beijing, which has since basically kept quiet,” Chan said in Hang Lung Properties’ interim report issued on Thursday. “But the trouble on the streets today are not just directed at the local government but also at the central government in Beijing.”

Protests and increasingly violent confrontations between police and more radical groups of demonstrators have disrupted the city’s streets for more than three months, hitting retailers and tourism-oriented businesses particularly hard.

The city’s government also cut its outlook for economic growth in 2019 to zero to 1 per cent last month, with several economists saying they expect the economy to contract this year.