Advertisement
Hong Kong protests
China

Hong Kong protest violence being fanned by foreign forces, China’s Wang Yi claims

  • Protests encouraged from abroad to destabilise the city and wipe out historic progress of ‘one country, two systems’, foreign minister says
  • Unrest is ‘violence, pure and simple’, he says after 20th successive weekend of unrest

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Police fire tear gas during a pro-democracy march on the 20th successive weekend of protests in Hong Kong. Photo: AFP
Robert Delaney
China’s foreign minister has reiterated Beijing’s claim that foreign forces are fanning violent protests in Hong Kong, which he denounced as “violence pure and simple”.

“There are foreign forces which are encouraging this sort of violence in the streets with the aim of destabilising Hong Kong, sowing chaos … to wipe out the historic progress made since the ‘one country, two systems’ policy was applied,” Wang Yi said in an interview in Paris with Agence France-Presse.

“What is happening in Hong Kong today is in no way peaceful protests. It’s violence, pure and simple. These are unacceptable acts in any country,” he added, accusing the protesters of attacking police and passers-by and paralysing transport.

Wang made the remarks following a 20th straight Sunday of demonstrations, with the most recent one marked by police firing multiple rounds of tear gas at protesters, some of whom hurled petrol bombs at the officers.

The clashes broke out soon after a mass march that, despite not being approved by police, drew tens of thousands onto the streets to call on the government to meet five key demands including universal suffrage for the election of Hong Kong’s chief executive and all seats in the city’s Legislative Council.

The unrest was triggered in June by mass opposition to a now-shelved extradition bill that would have allowed the transfer of criminal suspects to mainland China’s opaque legal system.
Advertisement