A banner with the words "Defend Yuen Long's harmony and maintain regional tranquility" is displayed on a street in Yuen Long, Hong Kong on Tuesday. Photo: Yang Sheng/GT

Despite a ban by the Hong Kong police on the planned Yuen Long protest on Saturday, opposition groups have not stopped spreading assembly information. 

Some fear that large scale violence may erupt during the so-called "take Back Yuen Long" campaign, as radical protesters have never sought to express their views in a peaceful way. And protesters on Telegram showed that even without the police's approval, opposition protesters would bypass the regulation by demonstrating in Yuen Long. 

Hong Kong police on Thursday denied permission for Saturday's protest in Yuen Long, citing possible violent clashes which may pose a threat to villagers and other residents, Hong Kong media reported.

The gathering was set to protest the attacks at the district's subway station on Sunday. 

Based on recent incidents, including the graves of a legislator's ancestor being vandalized and radical and violent speeches circulating online, the police believe that there could be violent clashes between the protesters and villagers, according to the police's letter of rejection.

Anti-government forces have already been preparing for Saturday's protest, Hong Kong media reported. 

Some went to the village to know the surroundings in advance and even cut off the telecommunication networks. The rioters had planned to take supplies into Yuen Long and some hinted they would prepare incendiaries to burn the villages. 

Information on social media shows that some radical forces were calling to collect supplies, including ice bags, water, alpenstock, batteries and intercoms, at a Sha Tin subway station for Saturday's protest. 

Organizers were also collecting emergency medical equipment for possible violent clashes on Saturday.

On Thursday afternoon, the Global Times reporter saw near the station a number of student-looking people in black T-shirts sitting around a table, apparently waiting for supplies. 

However, no one came to donate anything within a certain period of time, nor did the reporter see any piled supplies. Some citizens stopped to look at the slogans on the wall, while most just passed by.

Radio-Television Hong Kong reported that the rioters disturbed public order by blocking the door of subway trains during morning rush hour on Wednesday.

On the Thursday edition of Hong Kong's Oriental Daily News, 59 patriotic figures, including members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and leaders of Hong Kong groups, condemned the violent acts that hurt the "one country, two systems" and challenged national sovereignty. They also called for punishing the thugs that have defaced the national emblem and insulted the nation. 

Albert Ka Pun Chuang, vice chairman of Chuang's Consortium International Limited, is one of them. He said that they feel insulted by protesters' vandalism of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong on Sunday, and urged them to express their opinions through peaceful means.

"These thugs have set a bad example to the young people of Hong Kong as the young people would believe they can pursue the so-called values through violence. Only rational discussions can make society progress," Chuang told the Global Times. 

Colluding with West

But opposition forces do not stop, as they continue to appeal to Western countries and attempt to bring outside forces to further mess up Hong Kong.  

The Civil Human Rights Front, which has organized several demonstrations, has sent an open letter to 61 consuls-general and the European Union Office in Hong Kong, urging them to issue an Outbound Travel Alert to their citizens to prevent them from becoming "victims of violence by mobs and the Hong Kong Police Force," said the Hong Kong-based The Standard. 

Tourism insiders warned that asking foreign countries to issue travel alerts is an act of selling Hong Kong and will destroy Hong Kong's image, and they demanded the group stop its ploy, Ta Kung Pao reported.

A group of Hong Kong activists have paid for advertisements that appeared from Wednesday to Friday in seven British media outlets calling for help from the government of new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to Zaobao.com Wednesday.

One netizen who launched the campaign said they hope to internationalize the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and ask the new British prime minister to help them safeguard "freedom," the report said.

After July 1 when protesters broke into the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Johnson said in an interview with Reuters that he would support the people of Hong Kong "every inch of the way."

Oliver Turner, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, told the Global Times that the British position on Hong Kong was nothing new, but the next test for China-UK ties will come very soon, with critical factors such as US President Donald Trump's hard-line stance on Beijing and the UK's traditional alliance with Washington being intertwined.

Besides the UK, the US has also been squeezing for a role. On Tuesday, Senator Marco Rubio accused the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China of empowering street gangs and organizing crime to "viciously attack protesters." 

Earlier, the US State Department urged the Hong Kong government to respect freedom of speech and assembly.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a regular press briefing requested that the US "withdraw its dirty hands." On Thursday, the Commissioner's Office of China's Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) slammed Rubio's "irresponsible and nonsense" remarks on Hong Kong and his hysterical smear and attacks on China.

Kennedy Wong Ying-ho, a renowned Hong Kong lawyer and convener of Safeguard HK, Support the Surrender of Fugitive Offenders Legislation, said that those opposition forces, after being used by Western countries, will only be discarded, and they will be punished according to laws and condemned by mainstream Hong Kong society.

"It is clear that foreign forces are behind what is happening in Hong Kong, and the US in particular wants to manipulate the issue against the backdrop of the ongoing trade war with China," Tian Feilong, a director of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, told the Global Times.

Tian suggested Chinese institutions in foreign countries unite to show China's stance against overseas Hong Kong secessionist forces in accordance with local laws.

Protesters block a road in Hong Kong on Sunday. The violence and radical behavior of protesters was widely condemned. Photo: AP

Debate on PLA garrison

With tensions in Hong Kong brew and many people in the Chinese mainland are seeing weeks of turmoil in the city, debate is growing over whether the central government should deploy the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to end the chaos as soon as possible.

The PLA has had a presence in Hong Kong - the PLA's Hong Kong Garrison - since the city was returned to China. The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Garrisoning of the HKSAR (the Garrison Law) states that the HKSAR government could request the central government to allow the PLA garrison in Hong Kong to help maintain social order and disaster relief when necessary.

Articles 14 and 18 of the Basic Law also state how and under what circumstances the PLA troops in Hong Kong can be used.

Wong told the Global Times that he believes the Hong Kong government is capable of dealing with the current situation in Hong Kong, as the overall social order has not gone out of control, and there is no need to dispatch the PLA Garrison.

Responding to a question on how to deal with Hong Kong secessionist forces on Wednesday, Wu Qian, spokesperson of China's Ministry of National Defense, cited the Garrison Law and noted that the military is following the Hong Kong situation closely. 

On Thursday, heads of several disciplinary forces of the HKSAR government, including the Immigration Department, the Customs and Excise Department, the Fire Services Department, the Correctional Services Department and the Government Flying Service, condemned the recent violence and vowed to support the governance of the chief executive and the government in accordance with law.


Newspaper headline: HK Police reject protest plan