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Lam Heads to China as Protests Intensify: Hong Kong Update

Lam to Update Xi, China Officials on Protests: Hong Kong Update

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s beleaguered Chief Executive Carrie Lam arrived in Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials, where she will give an update on the violent protests that have gripped the city for the past six months.

The visit by Lam, whose administration has been fiercely criticized for its handling of the unrest, comes after an estimated 800,000 people took to the streets in a demonstration last week, and follows a landslide victory by opposition pro-democracy parties over her pro-establishment allies in local elections. Clashes between protesters and the police intensified Sunday night.

Lam Heads to China as Protests Intensify: Hong Kong Update

“The purpose of the duty visit is to give a full account of what has happened in Hong Kong over the past year,” Lam said in a press briefing on Dec. 10. “Particularly what has happened in Hong Kong in the last six months.”

Protests have raged in Asia’s premier financial hub since June, when large crowds took to the streets to oppose a bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. Although Lam’s government eventually withdrew the proposed law, the protesters’ demands have broadened to include universal suffrage and the setting up of an independent inquiry into police conduct during the increasing violent unrest.

Here’s the latest (all times local):

‘Final warning’ (2 a.m.)

Riot police officers marched to the area where crowds gathered in Mong Kok, holding their weapons and telling protesters through a loudspeaker that it was their “final warning.” Police and protesters can be heard sporadically yelling at each other.

Dismantled traffic light (1:30 a.m.)

A traffic light in Mong Kok was smashed repeatedly and dismantled as protesters set boxes on fire to block more roads. Smaller fires were also lit right at the entrance of a subway station.

Clash with police (11 p.m.):

Roads in Mong Kok, a tourist area known for its night market, were blocked with bricks as “radical protesters” threw glass bottles and other items at police officers at about 11 p.m. Sunday, prompting the use of tear gas to disperse the crowds, according to a statement from the city’s government.

Fresh demonstrations (5:00 p.m.)

Several hundreds of people gathered in Edinburgh Place in central Hong Kong, calling for a strike by social workers in support of the protests.

In the New Territories town of Shatin, police said they had taken “enforcement actions” after scuffles with protesters in a mall broke out earlier in the day. Demonstrators threw a smoke bomb and blocked entrances of the shopping center, security forces said in a statement.

Clashes in mall (2.30 p.m.)

Masked demonstrators clashed with bystanders who were trying to prevent them from drawing graffiti on walls and windows of a mall in the New Territories town of Shatin.

Riot police moved into the shopping center to disperse the groups of protesters.

Lam Heads to China as Protests Intensify: Hong Kong Update

Pro-Government rally (2 p.m.)

Hundreds of people gathered in Tamar Park in Hong Kong’s city center for a rally in support of the government. People waved China flags and chanted “say no to violence” as speakers called for an end to anti-Beijing protests.

Air traffic falls (1 p.m.)

The Hong Kong International Airport handled 5 million passengers in November, down 16% from a year earlier, the Hong Kong Airport Authority said in a statement.

The number of flights dropped 8.3% to 32,510 in the period, while cargo throughput declined 3.4% to 450,000 tons. The airport handled 65.8 million passengers in the first 11 months of the year, down 3.4% from a year earlier.

The ongoing unrest has helped drive the city’s economy into a recession, causing pain across the retail, tourism and hospitality industries. Visitor arrivals from China plunged 45.9% in October, the most on record in data going back to 2002, according to figures from the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Overall arrivals sank 43.7%, the biggest decline in more than 16 years,

Investors may stay away: Chan (Sunday 10 a.m.)

Financial Secretary Paul Chan wrote in his weekly blog that foreign investors may choose centers other than Hong Kong if unrest continues in the city, RTHK reported.

Overseas business people may put their funds elsewhere if protests drag on so that they can take advantage of any pick-up in the global economy, RTHK cited Chan as saying.

Three arrested (Saturday 12 p.m.)

Hong Kong police arrested three people suspected of making an explosive device in Tuen Mun on Saturday, the force said in a statement on its Facebook page. On Monday, security services defused what they described as two homemade bombs in Wanchai.

Five Held in Murder Probe (11 a.m.)

Police arrested five people between the ages of 15 and 18 in connection with the death of a 70-year-old man who was hit by a brick near the site of a protest in Sheung Shui last month, according to a government press release.

Authorities are treating the case as a murder investigation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregor Stuart Hunter in Hong Kong at ghunter21@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua

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