‘Extremely necessary’: Beijing backs Hong Kong’s mask ban
- Central government says chaos in the city can’t go on forever and action must be taken to stop Hong Kong version of a colour revolution
- Mainland authorities reaffirm support for Chief Executive Carrie Lam
Invoking sweeping colonial-era emergency powers, Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, announced on Friday a new anti-mask law intended to quell the city’s escalating unrest, fuelled by roiling public anger towards perceived police brutality.
As thousands of protesters took to the streets to express their anger over the ban, Beijing’s top office on Hong Kong affairs issued a stern statement supporting the law, citing violence in the city on Tuesday, the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule.
“The crisis triggered by the extradition bill has completely changed in nature. Under foreign intervention, it has evolved into a Hong Kong version of a colour revolution,” the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said in a statement read out during the prime-time evening news programme on state broadcaster CCTV.
Citing the “serious threat” to public safety posed by growing violence on the streets, the office said the Hong Kong government’s enactment of the anti-mask law was “legitimate, sensible, reasonable” and “extremely necessary”.
