The mass protests in Hong Kong continue. At the weekend it came again to violent clashes between police and protesters. More than 200 people were arrested, authorities said. Several Chinese state media now call for a "harder line" in the Chinese Special Administrative Region.
The Hong Kong law enforcement agencies would have to "hold the mob to justice as soon as possible," the state newspaper Global Times wrote. Protesters had damaged a Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua's office this weekend, calling it a "barbaric act."
A "tougher line to restore order" must be the answer to "increasing violence in Hong Kong," wrote the English-language newspaper China Daily. She accused "western media" of practicing "leniency" with the protest movement in Hong Kong. On the other hand, the demonstrators tried to "calm down" those who wanted to throw "the spotlight of truth" on the protests. However, the protest movement is "doomed to fail because the full weight of the law will hit them."
Neither the China Daily nor the Global Times mentioned the bloody attack by an armed assailant on Sunday that left at least five people injured. According to eyewitnesses, the attacker spoke Mandarin - the language spoken mostly in mainland China - and shouted pro-Chinese slogans before he attacked people. The local politician Andrew Chiu bit off the attacker a part of the ear.
Tough measures to stop protests
For months, people in Hong Kong have been demonstrating against the government and the growing influence of the Communist Beijing leadership on the autonomously governed territory. They demand an independent investigation of police violence and free elections. Since its return to China in 1997, the former British Crown Colony has been governed autonomously by its own Basic Law on the principle of "one country, two systems".
At the weekend, police used tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and a water cannon against the demonstrators. Radical activists threw incendiary bombs, built roadblocks and attacked businesses with suspected relations with China.
To stem the protests, Beijing and Hong Kong had recently called for harsher measures against the demonstrators. So a month ago was enforced by the Emergency Act, a cover-off ban, also the rules for users of social networks were tightened.