Hong Kong government’s flip-flopping in Beijing power row escalates tensions with opposition lawmakers, with mass protest planned
- Dispute over liaison office’s role in Hong Kong escalates as city officials release contradictory statements
- Beijing agencies accused of interfering in Hong Kong by criticising opposition, while activists plan another major anti-government demonstration
A row over the power of Beijing’s institutions that oversee Hong Kong deepened on Sunday as the city’s government flip-flopped on its own stance only to be attacked by lawmakers for betrayal while protest organisers vowed to stage a major demonstration in the coming months.
In an escalation of the controversy over the reach of the liaison office and the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s administration said the work of the former was not limited by the city's mini-constitution in this area, reversing a statement released just hours earlier that partly contradicted the mainland’s position.
The two agencies had said earlier that they had a right and responsibility over the city’s affairs without being interpreted as “interfering” as claimed by opposition lawmakers whom they had earlier castigated for their delaying tactics in the Legislative Council.
Battle lines were hardened on Sunday as the anti-government movement vowed to return en masse to the streets on July 1.
Revealing it had applied for police approval for a march that day to mark the city’s 1997 handover to Beijing, the Civil Human Rights Front said: “Hong Kong people will not back down in the face of mass arrests, and will persist on the irreversible revolution of our times.”
Earlier, the Hong Kong government’s response to the Beijing agencies’ comments on the opposition angered the camp further. It issued three statements within 4½ hours over the interference accusations levelled against the liaison office and HKMAO.