The Hong Kong police said on August 26 that the violence of radical protesters kept escalating. The police will resort to appropriate force as the actual situation may require.

On August 25, a large-scale incident of violence swept Tsuen Wan of New Territories and a policeman fired a warning shot towards the sky. At the press conference held the next day, the police was asked why it did not use pepper spray first but chose to fire. Xie Zhenzhong, the chief superintendent of the public relations department of the police force of Hong Kong SAR Government, said that at that time the police were attacked by a lot of thugs and were under very serious safety threat, so they had to fire.

Mai Zhanhao, the assistant commissioner of the police force said, some public activities, however they claimed to be peaceful, could not conceal the outrage of the thugs. The extreme thugs cast a lot of weapons such as gasoline bombs, steel balls, iron bars and iron chains tied with bricks towards police, common citizens and journalists in different areas. Such evil attacks were sufficient to claim lives. The thugs had made trouble and wantonly blocked the roads at different places in an organized and planned manner, and attacked some citizens

He said, the society of Hong Kong had always been peaceful, orderly, stable and safe. The behaviors of the thugs had impacted the spirit of rule of law in which Hong Kong took pride in all the time. The police will continue to try their best to protect the citizens’ life and property safety and call on the citizens to stand out to say no to violence and never make the thugs believe that their violence was supported by the citizens.

Executive Editor: Ke Ye

Translation: Ke Ye, Wenjin Chen