BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2019) Beijing has strongly condemned the violent acts of protesters in Hong Kong, who stormed and damaged the local Legislative Council (LegCo) Secretariat on Monday, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council of China said in a statement.
On Monday, which marked the anniversary of the city's 1997 return to Chinese rule, hundreds of mainly young masked protesters set up barricades on several streets in tHong Kong, resulting in clashes with police, who were forced to use batons and pepper spray to disperse the crowd. Several police officers were hospitalized after clashes with the protesters. Some of the protesters then tried to break into the LegCo building and smash tempered windows with different objects.
By Monday evening, hundreds of people managed to got inside the legislature building, destroyed furniture and defaced walls. The police eventually retook the building in the early hours of Tuesday after using tear gas to disperse the crowd. No arrests have been reported yet. This was the first time that the LegCo has had to declare a red security alert.
"July 1 was a happy day for representatives of all segments of the Hong Kong population, who celebrated the anniversary of the return of the city to China and the creation of a special administrative district, but some extremists, under the pretext of protesting against amendments to the relevant bill, attacked the building of the Legislative Council in a particularly cruel manner ... We strongly condemn this," the statement said.
According to the statement, such a flagrant violence undermined the rule of law and public order in Hong Kong, damaged the fundamental interests of city and became a blatant challenge to the principle of "one country, two systems."
Mass rallies erupted in Hong Kong in early June as the authorities were considering adopting a bill that would allow the autonomous Chinese city to extradite suspects to jurisdictions with which it did not have an extradition agreement, including mainland China. Pressured by the protests, the government indefinitely suspended the bill, while Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam issued a public apology. However, the protesters still demand the complete withdrawal of the extradition amendments.
