Widespread condemnation for protesters who stormed Hong Kong’s legislature while Carrie Lam vows to pursue those who unleashed chaos ‘to the end’
- Beijing condemns violence and accuses Western governments of interference, but pro-democracy groups blame city’s leader for driving youngsters to despair
- Chief executive forced to hold weekly cabinet meeting at official residence as Legco is closed after Monday’s unrest
Young protesters who stormed and vandalised Hong Kong’s legislature faced almost citywide condemnation on Tuesday, as an outraged Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor vowed to pursue those who had unleashed the unprecedented chaos “to the end”.
While the city was picking up the pieces amid soul searching over the previous day’s violence and anarchy, Beijing slammed the invasion of the Legislative Council as a blatant attack on the “one country, two systems” policy of governing Hong Kong, and urged Lam’s administration to “restore social order as soon as possible”.
However, opposition politicians and pro-democracy groups supporting the protesters and their campaign to force the complete withdrawal of the now-suspended extradition bill blamed the city’s leader for driving youngsters to despair.
Lam’s cabinet, the Executive Council, spent most of its weekly meeting on Tuesday discussing the Legco siege, shifting the venue to her official residence from the Chief Executive’s Office at government headquarters.
While the city’s administrative base remained closed for the day, the head of the legislature said lawmakers would not meet again over the remaining two weeks of its current session because the Legco building was still a crime scene under police investigation.
