This archive report was first published on 5 August 2019.
Published on August 5, 2019, Hong Kong's embattled pro-Beijing leader, Carrie Lam, has accused pro-democracy protesters of trying to 'destroy' the city in a dramatic escalation of rhetoric.
Two months of unprecedented protests and clashes with police have pushed the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city to a 'very dangerous situation', Lam said, as she struck a defiant tone amidst strikes and travel chaos.
Lam, chosen by a Beijing loyalist committee, showed no sign of backing down or ceding to protester demands for greater democratic freedoms and an independent inquiry into police violence.
Instead, she condemned the increasingly violent and confrontational tactics adopted by protesters in recent weeks, saying they had 'seriously undermined Hong Kong's law and order'.
"Such extensive disruptions in the name of certain demands or uncooperative movement has seriously undermined Hong Kong's law and order and are pushing our city, the city that we all love and many of us helped to build, to the verge of a very dangerous situation," she said.
Widespread disruptions and violence, she said, were putting Hong Kongers 'in a state of great anxiety' and she vowed to continue cracking down.
