Hong Kong enters recession as media decry treatment of journalists

[ChineseTiger1986]

HONG KONG (REUTERS) - Hong Kong has fallen into recession, hit by five months of anti-government protests that erupted in flames at the weekend, and is unlikely to achieve any growth this year, the city’s Financial Secretary said.

Black-clad and masked demonstrators set fire to shops and hurled petrol bombs at police on Sunday (Oct 27) following a now-familiar pattern, with police responding with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.

TV footage showed protesters, who streamed into the Kowloon hotel and shopping artery of Nathan Road on Sunday, setting fires to street barricades and squirting petrol from plastic bottles on to fires at subway entrances.

At one station, activists rolled a flaming metal barrel down a long staircase towards police below. Police fired 88 volleys of tear gas and 27 rubber bullets on Sunday, they said.

“The blow (from the protests) to our economy is comprehensive,” Mr Paul Chan said in a blog post, adding that a preliminary estimate for third-quarter GDP on Thursday would show two successive quarters of contraction – the technical definition of a recession.

He also said it would be “extremely difficult” to achieve the government’s pre-protest forecast of 0-1 per cent annual economic growth.

The rallying cry of Sunday’s protests was to fight perceived police brutality and defend Muslims and journalists. Police last weekend fired water cannon at a group of people standing outside a mosque and journalists have been wounded in the clashes.

The programming staff union of public broadcaster RTHK said on Monday it had called on police to identify officers who “attacked and ripped the face mask” off one of its journalists on Sunday. It said she was wearing a reflective vest clearly identifying herself as a journalist.

It was not immediately clear if she was wearing a gas mask to protect against tear gas and pepper spray. Ordinary face masks were banned this month under a resurrected colonial-era emergency law.

Hong Kong Free Press, an online news service, called for the release of a freelance photographer arrested on Sunday.

The city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club condemned the arrest in a statement on Monday calling for an independent investigation into “police violence against journalists and interference with the media’s right to cover the protests under Hong Kong law”.

The police, who deny using excessive force in life-threatening situations, held a news conference on Monday which ended in chaos when some journalists started yelling at police, shining bright lights in their eyes “just like you do to us”.

Protesters have routinely torched store fronts and businesses including banks, particularly those owned by mainland Chinese companies and vandalised the city’s MTR Corp metro which has shut down services to stop protesters gathering.

The MTR has closed early for the past few weeks and said it will again shut down two hours early on Monday to repair damage.

Protesters are angry about what they view as increasing interference by Beijing in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula intended to guarantee freedoms not seen on the mainland.

China denies meddling. It has accused foreign governments, including the United States and Britain, of stirring up trouble.

Tourists numbers have plummeted, with visitor numbers down nearly 50 per cent in October, a decline Mr Chan called an“emergency”.

Retail operators, from prime shopping malls to family-run businesses, have been forced to close for multiple days over the past few months.

While authorities have announced measures to support local small and medium seized enterprises, Mr Chan said the measures could only “slightly reduce the pressure”.

“Let citizens return to normal life, let industry and commerce operate normally, and create more space for rational dialogue,” he wrote.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/e...says-economy-may-contract-in-2019-amid-unrest

 

[vi-va]

HONG KONG (REUTERS) - Hong Kong has fallen into recession, hit by five months of anti-government protests that erupted in flames at the weekend, and is unlikely to achieve any growth this year, the city’s Financial Secretary said.

Black-clad and masked demonstrators set fire to shops and hurled petrol bombs at police on Sunday (Oct 27) following a now-familiar pattern, with police responding with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.

TV footage showed protesters, who streamed into the Kowloon hotel and shopping artery of Nathan Road on Sunday, setting fires to street barricades and squirting petrol from plastic bottles on to fires at subway entrances.

At one station, activists rolled a flaming metal barrel down a long staircase towards police below. Police fired 88 volleys of tear gas and 27 rubber bullets on Sunday, they said.

“The blow (from the protests) to our economy is comprehensive,” Mr Paul Chan said in a blog post, adding that a preliminary estimate for third-quarter GDP on Thursday would show two successive quarters of contraction – the technical definition of a recession.

He also said it would be “extremely difficult” to achieve the government’s pre-protest forecast of 0-1 per cent annual economic growth.

The rallying cry of Sunday’s protests was to fight perceived police brutality and defend Muslims and journalists. Police last weekend fired water cannon at a group of people standing outside a mosque and journalists have been wounded in the clashes.

The programming staff union of public broadcaster RTHK said on Monday it had called on police to identify officers who “attacked and ripped the face mask” off one of its journalists on Sunday. It said she was wearing a reflective vest clearly identifying herself as a journalist.

It was not immediately clear if she was wearing a gas mask to protect against tear gas and pepper spray. Ordinary face masks were banned this month under a resurrected colonial-era emergency law.

Hong Kong Free Press, an online news service, called for the release of a freelance photographer arrested on Sunday.

The city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club condemned the arrest in a statement on Monday calling for an independent investigation into “police violence against journalists and interference with the media’s right to cover the protests under Hong Kong law”.

The police, who deny using excessive force in life-threatening situations, held a news conference on Monday which ended in chaos when some journalists started yelling at police, shining bright lights in their eyes “just like you do to us”.

Protesters have routinely torched store fronts and businesses including banks, particularly those owned by mainland Chinese companies and vandalised the city’s MTR Corp metro which has shut down services to stop protesters gathering.

The MTR has closed early for the past few weeks and said it will again shut down two hours early on Monday to repair damage.

Protesters are angry about what they view as increasing interference by Beijing in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula intended to guarantee freedoms not seen on the mainland.

China denies meddling. It has accused foreign governments, including the United States and Britain, of stirring up trouble.

Tourists numbers have plummeted, with visitor numbers down nearly 50 per cent in October, a decline Mr Chan called an“emergency”.

Retail operators, from prime shopping malls to family-run businesses, have been forced to close for multiple days over the past few months.

While authorities have announced measures to support local small and medium seized enterprises, Mr Chan said the measures could only “slightly reduce the pressure”.

“Let citizens return to normal life, let industry and commerce operate normally, and create more space for rational dialogue,” he wrote.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/e...says-economy-may-contract-in-2019-amid-unrest

Whatever, China mainland never get a penny of tax from HK. They can do whatever they want to suicide. I have got popcorn ready.

It's very educational for mainlanders, especially those liberals. We have seen Taiwan self-destruction in past 2 decades, and now HK.

Let them burn.

 

[waz]

Well done to the Hong Kong protestors, they achieved a recession! This should also be put on their banners.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Whatever, China mainland never get a penny of tax from HK. They can do whatever they want to suicide. I have got popcorn ready.

It's very educational for mainlanders, especially those liberals. We have seen Taiwan self-destruction in past 2 decades, and now HK.

Let them burn.

Exactly, HK's GDP was never part of the Mainland China, meanwhile they just freerode so much without paying a dime of tax.

And CPC just patronized them too much in the past, and let them burning themselves this time.

RIP HK and Taiwan, they will serve as a negative example and a rude awakening for the Mainland Chinese.

Well done to the Hong Kong protestors, they achieved a recession! This should also be put on their banners.

The ongoing chaos in HK has brought more solidarity between the Mainland Chinese and more support to their government than ever.

This is definitely counterproductive to someone's initial expectation.

 

[vi-va]

Exactly, HK's GDP was never part of the Mainland China, meanwhile they just freerode so much without paying a dime of tax.

And CPC just patronized them too much in the past, and let them burning themselves this time.

RIP HK and Taiwan, they will serve as a negative example and a rude awakening for the Mainland Chinese.



The ongoing chaos in HK has brought more solidarity between the Mainland Chinese and more support to their government than ever.

This is definitely counterproductive to someone's initial expectation.

We are not USSR, HK is not Baltic states.
Those countries who back those rioters expect a Singing Revolution. They got wrong!
Those countries who expect a chain reaction in mainland China and a dissolution, hilarious!

History repeats itself first as tragedy second as farce.

 

[Beast]

CPC shall advocate true Hongkongker who embrace China move to Shenzhen, intergrate with main stream China system and those anti China Hong konger can remain at Hong Kong and rot themselves.

 

[8888888888888]

Those protesters just push democracy in China back by many decades. Many Chinese curious about democracy now just say it's nothing but chaos and confusion that doesn't help much.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

We are not USSR, HK is not Baltic states.
Those countries who back those rioters expect a Singing Revolution. They got wrong!
Those countries who expect a chain reaction in mainland China and a dissolution, hilarious!

History repeats itself first as tragedy second as farce.

Those so-called "China experts" know nothing about China and don't understand the Chinese culture.

Funny that they want to keep repeating themselves with those comforting lies, yet keep ignoring the unpleasant truth.

People like Gordon Chang and the FLG folks from Epoch Times are the ones who keep feeding the US elites with the comforting lies because those US elites cannot handle the truth that China is virtually unstoppable at this point.

 

[vi-va]

Those so-called "China experts" know nothing about China and don't understand the Chinese culture.

Funny that they want to keep repeating themselves with those comforting lies, yet keep ignoring the unpleasant truth.

People like Gordon Chang and the FLG folks from Epoch Times are the ones who keep feeding the US elites with the comforting lies because those US elites cannot handle the truth that China is virtually unstoppable at this point.

Gordon Chang is real patriot. China patriot. We should give him a ton of medals.

 

[Yankee-stani]

Gordon Chang is real patriot. China patriot. We should give him a ton of medals.

I guess you had too much baiju my friend liquid razer blades

We are not USSR, HK is not Baltic states.
Those countries who back those rioters expect a Singing Revolution. They got wrong!
Those countries who expect a chain reaction in mainland China and a dissolution, hilarious!

History repeats itself first as tragedy second as farce.

Baltic states wanted to leave the USSR and felt they never fit in a country filled with Slavs and Turkics, HK just has spolied brats

 

[riscol]

Nativism at play here, only hurting the local economy as it will not spread to the rest of China that's the way i see it. But protests aren't just isolated here, it's a worldwide phenomenal France, Spain, Chile, Indonesia. If Vietnam isn't careful it will ignite there as well.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Nativism at play here, only hurting the local economy as it will not spread to the rest of China that's the way i see it. But protests aren't just isolated here, it's a worldwide phenomenal France, Spain, Chile, Indonesia. If Vietnam isn't careful it will ignite there as well.

Only China is genuinely immune at this point, while the rest of the world all seems to be succumbed to the populism.

 

[vi-va]

I guess you had too much baiju my friend liquid razer blades



Baltic states wanted to leave the USSR and felt they never fit in a country filled with Slavs and Turkics, HK just has spolied brats

spolied brats

No. It's not that simple. There is something big at play. It just failed.

 

[Yankee-stani]

No. It's not that simple. There is something big at play. It just failed.

What you refering to HK protestors is Gordan Chang a double agent

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

What you refering to HK protestors is Gordan Chang a double agent

Everyone in the world knows who is their master.