HK violence condemned by overseas specialists

An airline passenger, wearing a green shirt, works his way to a gate of the departure hall through the jam-packed Terminal 1 at Hong Kong International Airport on Aug 13, 2019. [Photo/China Daily]

Foreign government officials and experts slammed the violence perpetrated by radical protesters in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and voiced support for the legitimate actions taken by the HKSAR government and local police to restore order.

Mohammad Faisal, a spokesman for Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Hong Kong affairs are completely China's internal affairs, and Pakistan understands the actions taken by the Chinese central government and the HKSAR government to uphold national sovereignty and maintain the city's prosperity and stability.

Helen Sham-Ho, a former Australian politician, said the current chaotic situation in Hong Kong is damaging its prosperity, adding that there is no doubt that the priority is to regain order and police have the right to uphold law and order.

Michael Borchmann, a law expert and former government official from Germany, said that the purpose of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong is to stir up chaos and turmoil in the city, and is not a response to the draft extradition bill, Nouvelles d'Europe cited him as saying.

Borchmann said it is true that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are protected by law in Hong Kong, but this doesn't give people the right to use violence to impose on the freedoms of others. Criticism of China by some voices in the Western media was irrelevant, he added.

In reference to the recent attacks on Hong Kong police and the blockade of Hong Kong International Airport by some radical demonstrators, Abdulaziz Alshaabani, a Saudi Arabian expert on Chinese affairs, said such radical acts seriously undermined the rule of law, hindered economic development and harmed the interests of Hong Kong's people.

If the violence further escalates, Hong Kong's prosperity and stability will suffer a severe blow, undermining its well-deserved international image and status, the Saudi expert said.

Wilson Lee Flores, a columnist at The Philippine Star, said the continued chaos in Hong Kong, apparently created by anti-government protesters and encouraged by foreign influences, must be quickly stopped.

Strong measures should be taken as the chaos is not only bad for Hong Kong's economy and tourism, but also disadvantageous for the prosperity of the East Asian region as Hong Kong is an important financial and trade center, he said.

China's Mission to the European Union said on Wednesday that what is happening in Hong Kong is now devolving into extreme violence.

It said in an online statement that any attempt to lump together the rigorously lawful exercise of duties by Hong Kong police with the extreme and violent offenses by radicals is absolutely misleading and incorrect, and China is firmly opposed to such attempts.

China's diplomatic mission in Geneva also lashed out at the United Nations human rights office on Wednesday, accusing its spokesman of making a "wrongful statement" about protests in Hong Kong that "sends the wrong signal to the violent criminal offenders".

The Office of the Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry in the HKSAR said on Wednesday that the words and deeds of some lawmakers from the United States have shown them to be the "black hands" behind the violent radicals in Hong Kong, referring to a comment from US legislators including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.