Chinese state media condemns Hong Kong protesters after ‘challenge to Beijing’s authority’
- Blanket commentaries on Monday call siege of mainland’s liaison office in the city ‘absolutely intolerable’
- Building was daubed in graffiti and national emblem of China defaced
China’s top government mouthpieces issued stern and prominent commentaries on Monday after Hong Kong protesters laid siege to Beijing’s liaison office, warning that “challenges to central government’s authority” and “insults to the state and Chinese nation” would not be tolerated.
Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily ran a commentary on its front page, while news agency Xinhua led its website with a commentary that was also carried on the front page of People’s Liberation Army Daily, the military’s mouthpiece.
The commentaries followed the statement by Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Sunday night, which criticised “some radical demonstrators” for vandalising the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, saying it had “touched the bottom line of the principle of ‘one country, two systems’” and was “absolutely intolerable”.
Derogatory graffiti was written on the liaison office building, while the national emblem was defaced by protesters with black paint. Police dispersed protesters late on Sunday.