Ongoing violence can strike irreparable blow to Hong Kong economy — Expert

Tue, Aug 27, 2019

By publisher

4 MIN READ

THE ongoing violence in Hong Kong could deal an irreparable blow to the city’s economic performance, an Azerbaijani expert warned on Tuesday.

Political analyst Ilgar Velizade told Xinhua the Chinese port city has long benefited from the “one country, two systems” principle, and continuously functions as a gateway for overseas investors and exporters to China.

This role has put Hong Kong at the top of economy and finance ratings for years, Velizade said, warning that this achievement could be ruined by the ongoing turmoil.

Destructive acts by rioters, the ongoing protests, and the threat of chaos, unrest and illegal activities that have almost paralyzed the city could trigger an outflow of investment, even an economic recession, which will profoundly impact the lives of ordinary people, the expert said.

He said that China’s numerous friends around the world, including those in Azerbaijan, hope for the restoration of peace and stability as soon as possible in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, experts have rebuked some Western countries for meddling in China’s internal affairs and stirring up tensions in Hong Kong, and called for a resolution of the violent street protests.

Kawa Mahmoud, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kurdistan, told Xinhua recently that, “What is happening now in Hong Kong is clearly blatant interventions by the U.S. and Britain aimed at creating certain problems.”

Some in the West are trying to destabilise the situation in Hong Kong, “fan flames”, and “use the young people in Hong Kong to raise the wave against China,” said Alexei Maslov, head of the Oriental Studies Department of the Russian Higher School of Economics Research University, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

As the ongoing protests have “completely lost rationality,” the crisis could deal a great blow to the business circle in Hong Kong, making the place “unstable in the financial and political sense,” Maslov warned.

External intervention from the West has provoked storms of so-called “pro-democracy” protests in some countries but only left people there displaced and cities ruined, said Luxman Siriwardena, executive director of advocacy and research think-tank Pathfinder Foundation based in Sri Lanka.

Siriwardena, who called for a reasonable resolution through consultation and dialogue, said: “My wish is that Hongkongers will see the reality before it’s too late.

“I sincerely hope that Hongkongers will not stage a struggle which will lead to the drastic decline of their own living standards, opportunities, and future of the youth.”

1. R. Deepak, professor at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said violent demonstrations are “disturbing,” as Hong Kong is one of the most vibrant and independent financial centers in the world.

Deepak called for an end to these protests in order to “restore peace, law and order in society.”

Meanwhile, experts also slammed western media for false reports on the situation.

Western media should be objective over the situation in Hong Kong and report “what exactly is going on,” Deepak said.

They “are silent about Hong Kong demonstrators inflicting injuries on police officers,” he said.

He noted that their reports only showed demonstrators being attacked while avoiding mentioning that the demonstrators were engaging in violence themselves.

“They (the western media) are trying to raise the temperature politically to put pressure on China and to destabilize China,” Mushahid Hussain Syed, chairman of the Pakistani Senate’s standing committee on foreign affairs, told Xinhua on Saturday.

To misguide the world about the real situation in Hong Kong and create undue hype of the protests, western media reports are spreading false information by giving inflated figures of the number of the protestors, he said.

“The purpose is manipulated politically to convey messages and to convey a narrative, as if the whole of Hong Kong was in revolt, which is not true at all. They want to encourage and fan the flames of unrest, because it suits them,” he added. (Xinhua/NAN)

– Aug. 27, 2019 @ 13:25 GMT |