Violence Increases In Hong Kong As Anti-Mask Law Takes Effect, ATMs Out Of Cash

Riots in Hong Kong as anti-mask law takes effect

JOHN SEXTON

Friday, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced a new law banning protesters from wearing masks. The goal is to make it easier for police to identify protesters (and no doubt also to make them more susceptible to tear gas). 

But the immediate reaction to the new law was the worst night of vandalism and rioting yet seen in the city. One of the incidents getting a lot of attention on social media was a group of protesters beating involved an undercover police officer. At some point, either before or during this attack, the officer shot a 14-year-old boy in the leg, making this the second time a protester has been shot by police. A crowd responded by setting off a firebomb which briefly engulfed the officer. It’s amazing no one was killed:

Hong Kong protesters beat a police officer, set him on fire, then try to steal his sidearm after he shot a 14-year-old protester in the leg with another live round. Again, another young protester has been shot with a live round. 

Video via @phoebe_kongwypic.twitter.com/4MXcf5gzHC

— Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) October 4, 2019

The entire rail system was also shut down and remains closed today:

Rioters ramped up their sustained campaign of destruction against the city’s rail operator, having accused it of colluding with the police force to close down stations.

In Kwun Tong, Sha Tin and Sha Tin Wai MTR stations, they destroyed turnstiles, smashed advertisement billboards and daubed graffiti on the walls and ticket machines. A train was seen with its roof on fire in Sha Tin, and in Shek Mun a water hydrant was set off, flooding the station.As the night wore on, huge fires were lit at entrances of Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Tsuen Wan MTR stations.

By 10.30pm, they had forced the closure of every MTR station in an unprecedented shutdown of the entire railway network.

Another target of the protesters was banks and shops connected to China.

Shops and banks with links to mainland China were also targeted by rioters. They smashed the glass facade of a Bank of China branch in Tsuen Wan and threw petrol bombs inside.

ATMs were smashed or set alight in Mong Kok and other areas.

In Central, they smashed shop windows of MX, a food chain owned by Maxim’s. Its founder’s daughter, Annie Wu, infuriated protesters last month by calling them rioters and saying they did not represent Hong Kong.

Today the protesters were out again, openly defying the anti-mask law:

Masked protesters formed a human chain in Hong Kong on Saturday, October 5, in defiance of leader Carrie Lam, who announced emergency laws that include banning face masks at protests.https://t.co/PT3BmjVR8mpic.twitter.com/t3tNJQOtkY

— The Voice of America (@VOANews) October 5, 2019

Meanwhile, there are reports of a run on the banks and ATM’s out of cash:

Bank runs all over Hong Kong now. ATM machines running out of cash but there is something more important…failed leader carrie lam(b) can now officially confiscate bank accounts and assets without recourse. The HK legal system is essentially gone. #Bankruns #HKexithttps://t.co/jz9sPrA30U

— Kyle Bass (@Jkylebass) October 5, 2019

I don’t think anyone really knows what is going to happen next. So far, China hasn’t instituted a military crack-down, probably because Tiananment 2.0 would happen in an age of cell phone cameras and the internet. But it still feels like that’s where all of this is headed. The protesters are angry and many believe this is their last chance to fight for freedom from being subsumed by the mainland’s one-party, communist dictatorship. The problem is that they are a relatively small group (compared to China) of mostly unarmed people. If China does send troops it won’t be a fight, it will be a massacre.

As Hong Kong ATMs Run Out Of Cash, Central Bank Steps In To Prevent "Panic Among The Public"

As the violence in Hong Kong escalates with every passing week, culminating on Friday with what was effectively the passage of martial law when the local government banned the wearing of masks at public assemblies, a colonial-era law that is meant to give the authorities a green light to finally crack down on protesters at will, one aspect of Hong Kong life seemed to be surprisingly stable: no, not the local economy, as HK retail sales just suffered their biggest drop on record as the continuing violent protests halt most if not all commerce:

We are talking about the local banks, which have been remarkably resilient in the face of the continued mass protests and the ever rising threat of violent Chinese retaliation which could destroy Hong Kong's status as the financial capital of the Pacific Rim in a heart beat, and crush the local banking system. In short: despite the perfect conditions for a bank run, the locals continued to behave as if they had not a care in the world.

Only that is now changing, because one day after a junior JPMorgan banker was beaten in broad daylight by the protest mob, a SCMP report confirms that the social upheaval has finally spilled over into the financial world: according to the HK publication, the local central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, was forced to issue a statement warning against a "malicious attempt to cause panic among the public" after rumors were spread online about the possibility of the government using emergency powers to impose foreign-exchange controls.