The unrest in Hong Kong has “seriously challenged” the “one country, two systems” principle governing the semi-autonomous city, China’s President Xi Jinping said on Thursday in comments reported by the Chinese state media.
Pro-democracy protesters choked the city with barricades and rallies for a fourth straight day on Thursday, days after the police shot a protester with a live round and a man expressing pro-Beijing views was set on fire.
Mr. Xi said Beijing “firmly supports” Hong Kong’s government and the police and that “stopping violence and controlling chaos while restoring order is currently Hong Kong’s most urgent task,” the People’s Daily reported.
Recent actions by protesters have “seriously challenged the baseline principle of ‘one country, two systems’”, Mr. Xi said in rare comments on the violence in Hong Kong at a summit of BRICS countries in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia.
Hong Kong was handed back to China by the British in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” policy which gives the territory rights unseen on the mainland — freedoms protesters say are being steadily eroded by Beijing.
