No Quick End To Protests, Says Lau Siu-kai

A vice-president of Beijing's top think tank on Hong Kong, Lau Siu-kai said on Monday that he sees no end in sight for the ongoing anti-extradition protests which saw protests and clashes enter a 16th straight weekend.

But Lau said he believes fewer and fewer people will continue to support the movement as protests spread in the community, affecting MTR stations and shopping malls.

"What we see now is people taking part in violent activities are decreasing. The remaining people are using higher level of violence in order to demonstrate their presence to sustain their movement," he said.

"At the same time given the fact that the violence has spread in the community and targets of the attack are not only the government and the police but [now] include the private enterprise and public transportation, that will create a lot of anger, anxiety among Hong Kong people," said Lau. This will erode support for the protest, he said.

On how effective the community dialogue session in Wan Chai this Thursday will be in helping to resolve the ongoing crisis, Lau told RTHK’s Janice Wong that there's little one session can achieve, but at least it'll show that the government is back in business.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam is to hold a two-hour dialogue session with 150 randomly selected citizens on Thursday as part of her administration’s efforts to find a solution to the ongoing crisis.

The protests that started over the government's moves to amend the fugitive ordinance bill have continued for more than three months, and have now morphed into a campaign that is demanding an independent probe into police actions as well as political reforms.

The government has already agreed to withdraw the bill but rejected other demands.