Officials from China’s State Council will hold a second press conference in as many weeks on the unrest in Hong Kong, as the city’s political crisis drags into a third month.
Two representatives from the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council – a prominent party organ that deals with the two semi-autonomous hubs – will speak to the media on Tuesday in Beijing about the “current situation in Hong Kong.”
Last week, the body held a rare media event in which it threw its support behind the Hong Kong government, following another weekend of protests.
The wave of demonstrations was triggered by opposition to a planned law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but has evolved into a wider movement for democratic reform and a halt to eroding freedoms.
So far, Beijing has backed the city’s leader Carrie Lam, who warned Monday that pro-democracy protesters are creating a “very dangerous situation.”
The past fortnight has seen a surge in violence on both sides of the protests, with police repeatedly firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse increasingly hostile projectile-throwing crowds.
