Financial Groups Back Protesters

Tonight in Tsim Sha Tsui the police try to contain protesters in the area

Yesterday Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet Ngor and Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po tried to blame the economic slowdown in Hong Kong on the protesters.

However, two groups in the financial industry, one for banking the other finance, with members totaling 9,622 professionals issued a statement today refuting what Lam and Chan said.

Yesterday Carrie Lam with Paul Chan (left)

"Earlier this week at a press conference, Financial Secretary Mr. Paul Chan warned that Extradition Bill protests would hit [the] Hong Kong economy. The government's statement is misleading and placing the blame on protesters is irresponsible and unacceptable.

"Hong Kong's economy has already shown signs of a slowdown in the first quarter of this year whereas the first demonstration began in the late second quarter," the statement continues. "Recently, the Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy of the University of Hong Kong and Wang Chunxin, senior economic researcher of Bank of China Hong Kong, have lowered Hong Kong's annual GDP forecast to 1.7 percent - 1.8 percent, mainly due to the US-China trade war.

"The report did not mention any impact caused by the protests. However, the Government's continued selective disregard of the law, abuse use of institutional violence, and negative sentiment by the international investment community will be [the] real reasons for any economic deterioration down the road."

Peaceful protests in Tai Po this afternoon

The statement continues to say that the five demands of the protesters should be met for the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, and that the government needs to respond quickly.

"Allegations of 'foreign forces' meddling in recent events with no actual supporting evidence is unhelpful. On that basis, society and various industry sectors demand that a neutral and recognized independent investigation committee to be set up to uncover the truth and responsible parties, so that Hong Kong can return to the right track as soon as possible."

It's interesting these two financial groups have made a very forceful statement condemning the government for placing the blame squarely on the protesters "in an attempt to deceive the public from its mistakes and divisive statements".

Two financial groups condemn the government's inactions

Wonder how Lam and co will respond to this damning indictment...

Meanwhile this evening more battles erupted between the protesters and police in Tai Po, Sha Tin, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hung Hom, Tsuen Wan, Kwun Tong and Ngau Tau Kok.

My relatives and I watched the rising tensions between the police and protesters on Nathan Road in the shopping area of Tsim Sha Tsui. Some police were surrounded after they had arrested a young woman.

The crowd grew as people who were hanging out in the area, just finished dinner or a movie came out to see what was going on. Many turned on the lights on their smartphones to shine back at the police.

A young woman arrested in Tsim Sha Tsui, protesters angry

Eventually the officers had to retreat back to their police station nearby but not without lobbing a few canisters of tear gas for good measure.

Tomorrow is another day...