Says Carrie Lam as unrest paralyses the city

Reuters, Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam did not rule out asking Beijing for help, as the Asian financial hub struggles to deal with months of often violent anti-government protests that are damaging its economy.

Lam said yesterday Beijing wanted Hong Kong to solve its own problems, but under its mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, Hong Kong could ask Beijing for help.

“If the situation becomes so bad, then no options could be ruled out, if we want Hong Kong to at least have another chance,” Lam said at weekly news conference after a long weekend of violence crippled the city.

“But at this moment, I and my team, we are still very committed in making sure we can use our own instruments ... to try and restore calm and order in Hong Kong,” she said, adding there were no plans to expand emergency laws introduced on Friday.

“But I would appeal (to) everyone in society to join hands to achieve this objective.”

The protests, which show no sign of abating, pose the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012 and are Hong Kong’s thorniest political crisis since Britain returned it to China in 1997.

Lam said protests were severely damaging the economy. “Hong Kong’s various sectors will enter a severe winter season,” she said.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong over the weekend wearing face masks, despite Lam having banned masks under colonial-era emergency laws invoked on Friday. Protesters have been using masks to shield their identities and to protect their faces from police tear gas.

Police said yesterday 77 people had been arrested for violating the anti-mask law.

Since Friday, more than 200 shops and public utilities had been damaged and police fired 367 tear gas rounds, said a police spokesman.