Letters | Hong Kong protesters have made their point, but should not push their luck

Not satisfied with the suspension of the extradition bill, protesters want its complete withdrawal. Out of hand unrest could trigger action from Beijing

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Anti-extradition bill demonstrators send out a message to the administration, on a footbridge in Admiralty on June 13. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 7:30am, 19 Jun 2019Updated: 7:30am, 19 Jun 2019

If only the 1.03 million or 240,000 protest marchers, depending on whether one believes the march organisers or the police, of June 9, and those on June 16, were made aware of the extensive factual points that Grenville Cross made known in his enlightening article, “Progress of mainland overlooked in extradition debate” (May 9), the turnouts would have been no more than a few thousand and no “riots” would have taken place.

The government would not have put off doing the right thing, shelving the extradition bill on June 15. It was the loss of a propaganda war through and through.

On June 15, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor shelved the second reading of the extradition bill, to restore peace and calm. Yet, the perpetrators were unsurprisingly not satisfied, despite the chief executive’s painstaking press briefing on the day. They mounted another protest march on June 16, to demand the total withdrawal of the bill. Relenting further, the chief executive yesterday tendered her “most sincere” apology over her administration’s handling of the bill. However, protesters should know she will not be bullied.

Article 18 of the Basic Law states: “In the event that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress decides to declare a state of war or, by reason of turmoil within the Hong Kong special administrative region which endangers national unity or security and is beyond the control of the government of the region, decides that the region is in a state of emergency, the central people’s government may issue an order applying the relevant national laws in the region.” So, protesters should not push too far.

Peter Lok, Heng Fa Chuen

Protesters were far from being ‘rioters’

Alex Lo calls the young people who surrounded Tamar on Wednesday “rioters” (“HK rioters are sending the wrong message”, June 13). But the youngsters did not overturn cars, loot shops or torch buildings. They did not even intimidate; anyone who was there in that vast crowd could only have been impressed by the courtesy and consideration they showed to one another and to passers-by.