Hong Kong protests labelled independence campaign by China’s top diplomat in city, Xie Feng, who warns ‘virus of violence’ is spreading overseas

Xie Feng says demonstrators, helped by ‘black hands’, are trying to overthrow city government in a separatist plot

He adds the international community must speak up against it, as protests break out in other countries

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Protests in Hong Kong have led to regular clashes between residents and police for more than four months. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 2:26pm, 24 Oct 2019Updated: 11:33pm, 24 Oct 2019

China’s top diplomat in Hong Kong has launched a scathing attack on the city’s protest movement, labelling it as an independence campaign to overthrow the government, and appealing to the international community to speak out against the “virus of street violence” spreading overseas.

“Recent days have seen the street violence in Hong Kong imitated in other cities and countries around the globe, and the activists championing so-called ‘Hong Kong independence’ colluding with foreign separatists at a faster pace,” Xie Feng, commissioner of China’s ministry of foreign affairs office in the city, warned at a forum on Beijing’s Greater Bay Area project on Thursday.

He hit out at anti-government protesters and the “black hands” behind them, calling their opposition to the now-withdrawn extradition bill merely a pretext for insurrection.

Xie Feng, commissioner at China’s ministry of foreign affairs in Hong Kong. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

The government’s campaign to bulldoze through the bill – which would have allowed the transfer of criminal suspects to mainland China and other jurisdictions with which Hong Kong lacks an extradition deal – sparked a massive public backlash in June that has turned increasingly chaotic and violent over the past months.

Radicals on the protest front lines have regularly blocked roads, attacked police with petrol bombs and other home-made weapons, trashed MTR stations, and vandalised businesses and banks linked to mainland interests. Police, in turn, have been accused of brutalising protesters with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

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Hong Kong protests labelled independence campaign by China’s top diplomat in city, Xie Feng, who warns ‘virus of violence’ is spreading overseas

Xie Feng says demonstrators, helped by ‘black hands’, are trying to overthrow city government in a separatist plot He adds the international community must speak up against it, as protests break out in other countries

Xie Feng says demonstrators, helped by ‘black hands’, are trying to overthrow city government in a separatist plot

He adds the international community must speak up against it, as protests break out in other countries