HK Affairs Office To Hold Unprecedented Meeting

The State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office will hold a press conference in Beijing on Monday to give “its stance and views on Hong Kong’s current situation”.

The central government issued a notice of its intentions as clashes erupted on Sunday between police and protesters outside its liaison office in the SAR for a second consecutive weekend.

It will be the first time that China’s top policy office on Hong Kong affairs has held a press briefing on the SAR since it was established in 1997.

Lau Siu-kai, the head of the mainland's top think-tank on Hong Kong, said Beijing will have been watching media coverage of the protests and will want to show support for the police in the face of radical violence.

Meanwhile the Office of the Commissioner of China's Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong has denounced remarks by a US congressman on the police's handling of the recent protests.

Eliot Engel, chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, had said that he was "deeply concerned by reports of police brutality in response to peaceful protests in Hong Kong" and that "allegations of police violence over the past weeks have tarnished Hong Kong's international reputation for good governance and the fair administration of justice".

A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry office said there can be no excuse for violent acts. He said militants were willing to openly attack the Legislative Council building, police officers, and the central government's agencies.

He said Hong Kong ranked 16th for its rule of law last year, which was higher than the United States.