Hong Kong Reopens Central Government Offices After Mass Protests

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong reopened downtown government offices that had been blocked off after a historic protest on Sunday calling for leader Carrie Lam to resign over a bill allowing extraditions to China for the first time.

Lam will address the media on Tuesday afternoon, Hong Kong’s TVB reported, without saying where it got the information or what the briefing would be about.

The government announced earlier in the day that roads near the Central Government Offices, which is next to Lam’s office, had “generally become accessible” and urged staff to return to work. The Executive Council that Lam oversees will be on recess Tuesday, the government said in a separate statement, adding that arrangements for her normal media session would be announced later.

Lam is under pressure to resign after hundreds of thousands of protesters wearing black flooded downtown Hong Kong on Sunday, prompting her to issue a statement apologizing for causing “substantial controversies and disputes in society.” Still, China said on Monday it continues to “firmly support” Lam and her government.

Protest leaders want Lam to completely withdraw the extradition bill and resign from office. The dispute has attracted attention around the globe to the embarrassment of China: Beijing has blamed foreigners for provoking the protests, and urged other nations to stop getting involved in what it regards as a domestic issue.

‘Riot’

Hong Kong’s police on Monday evening dialed back their categorization of June 12’s clashes with protesters near the city’s legislative building as a “riot,” which has certain legal ramifications. Dropping the description was among the major demands of Sunday’s demonstration.

Only people who threw bricks and wielded metal poles against police officers might have committed riot offenses, police commissioner Stephen Lo told reporters.

“Others who have participated in the same public order event but have not engaged in any violent act need not to worry about committing rioting offences,” Lo said. He added that only five people had been arrested on riot-related offenses and that most protesters were “peaceful.”

Lo last week classified afternoon clashes outside the Legislative Council as rioting. Lam herself also used the term in a video statement released by the government.

To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Tan in Hong Kong at ztan39@bloomberg.net;Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh

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