Carrie Lam, the Beijing-imposed “leader” of Hong Kong, issued a clear threat Tuesday to the millions of citizens now protesting each week in pursuit of liberty, hinting that she’d invoke emergency powers “to stop violence and chaos.”
This, after police started using tear gas against demonstrators and last Sunday used water cannons for the first time during the months-long standoff. One officer even fired live ammo, albeit as a warning shot.
Some protesters retaliated by throwing bricks, though the overwhelming majority remain nonviolent. Last Friday, for example, tens of thousands of people joined to form a 30-mile human chain.
The Emergency Regulations Ordinance, last invoked in 1967, would let Lam issue regulations allowing life sentences for new “crimes,” as well as property confiscation, deportation, censorship and the closing of publications.
After 12 straight weeks of demonstrations, Beijing plainly wants the embarrassment to end, especially before Oct. 1, when China’s rulers mean to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Communist Revolution.
Above all, they don’t want the virus of freedom to spread — and mainland citizens are already sneaking into Hong Kong to join the protests, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“It is not a question of not responding” to the protesters, Lam said Tuesday. “It is a question of not accepting those demands” — which include an independent inquiry into police brutality, waiving charges against those arrested so far and a turn back to political reform to reverse Beijing’s steady erosion of liberty in the island city.
Lam insists her government hasn’t lost control, but her talk of seizing emergency power is a clear sign that her masters in Beijing aren’t so sure of that — and may demand innocent blood as proof.