The Chinese government declared that the “savage acts were an outright provocation and trampling of the city’s rule of law”
dramatic rebuke of Chinese rule of Hong Kong, on the day it was meant to be celebrated. On July 1st, a public holiday known as Establishment Day in honour of the handover of the territory in 1997 from Britain to China, anti-government protesters stormed into and ransacked the city’s Legislative Council, displaying a British-era colonial flag for cameras and live social-media feeds.
There will be no confusion about that. The tough, co-ordinated response to the Legco break-in, and to critics abroad, will reinforce concerns that Chinese custodianship of the territory will grow only more stern with time. The protest movement this year is the latest of several since the handover that have been sparked by fears that freedoms in Hong Kong are eroding under Chinese rule.
A sense of powerlessness may have informed protesters this time. On the morning of July 1st Mrs Lam promised that the government would be more open and would listen to the people of Hong Kong. Outside, protesters were facing police on the streets. Across town, crowds were gathering for another march through the city to demand political reform, an annual rite on Establishment Day; organisers say this one drew 550,000 people . Many walked peacefully past the government’s offices in Admiralty.
Many in the protest movement are sympathetic to those who ransacked Legco, while disavowing the violence. On July 2nd Joshua Wong, one of the leaders of the Umbrella Movement, who on June 17th emerged from a third stint in jail, posted to Twitter that Mrs Lam suspended the extradition bill only after police clashed violently with protesters around Legco, on June 12th. “Months of Hong Kongers and the world expressing concern did not matter to her at all until she saw blood,” he tweeted.
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