Hong Kong Crisis: Trains Suspended, Appeals to Public after Rioting

By Staff, Agencies

All subway and train services were suspended and lines formed at the cash machines of shuttered banks as Hong Kong dusted itself off and braced for more protests Saturday after another night of rampaging violence that a new ban on face masks failed to quell.

The closure of the entire MTR network that handles more than 4 million trips a day, including the express line to the Hong Kong international airport, was a major and quite exceptional disruption for the usually never-resting but now edgy and restive territory of 7.5 million people.

After widespread overnight arson attacks, looting, fighting with police and beatings, the government on Saturday appealed for a public shift in attitude against rioting.

John Lee, the government's security secretary, said by not condemning violence, people are stoking it.

"What is adding oil to violence is people's support for these acts," he said. "What is important is that everybody comes out to say, 'No, society will not accept violence.'"

But even many peaceful protesters say violence has become a means to an end, the only way for young masked protesters to force the government to bend.

As a group of black-clad youths in protective gear rushed past him, many carrying bamboo sticks, a property industry worker who came out with his wife Friday night to show his opposition to the mask ban expressed his admiration for those confronting police.

"I know they have done terrible things" he said. "Can you believe how brave they are?"

Embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam insisted that criminalizing the wearing of masks at rallies and her use of rarely deployed emergency powers to introduce the ban without legislative approval were not a move toward authoritarian rule or at the behest of the Chinese government.

International observers worried, however, that her resort to the Emergency Ordinance that had lain dormant since last used to quell riots in 1967 could be a harbinger of harsher measures in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory deeply attached to its special freedoms and fearful of becoming a tightly controlled city like all the others in China.

The mask ban went into effect Saturday. Two activists filed legal challenges late Friday on grounds it would instill fear and curtail freedom of assembly, but a court denied their request for an injunction