'Violence Will Worsen Without Political Solution'

Pro-democracy lawmaker Chu Hoi-dick said on Monday that he expects the crisis in Hong Kong to continue if Beijing does not announce anything new in its planned press conference on Monday afternoon.

Chu said on Monday morning that he expects the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office to once again express its support for Chief Executive Carrie Lam and the Hong Kong police force.

But the Land Justice League legislator said such comments will only allow the government to continue to ignore the demands of protesters.

“If Beijing expresses once again their support for Carrie Lam’s government, then we expect Carrie Lam will not step down and not respond directly to Hong Kong people’s demands. And therefore, this stalemate will carry on,” he said.

Protesters have been calling for the complete withdrawal of the now-suspended extradition bill, an independent probe into allegations of police brutality, a halt to prosecutions of protesters, and for top officials to step down over the controversy.

Over the past month or so, violent clashes had broken out after peaceful demonstrations in different parts of the city.

Chu said he is concerned over the increasing level of violence.

He said the increased use of tear gas by police officers and attempts by protesters to start fires at protest sites in Western on Sunday night are worrying, but said the escalation was unavoidable until a political solution is found.

“As we have seen from the figures, the number of [injuries] on the protesters’ side increased drastically in the last weekend. So I’m deeply worried that if there’s an ongoing upgrade of the use of force, there will be more injuries or even deaths,” he told RTHK’s Janice Wong.

“This is a political crisis and a political solution should be put on the table by the SAR government or the Beijing government. When we do not have this for the time being, you can expect this worrying escalation of violence would happen,” Chu added.