An eery calm hung over Hong Kong on Saturday after businesses and metro stations were torched during a violent Friday night protest against a government ban on pro-democracy protesters wearing face masks.
The city’s entire mass transit rail system, which normally carries 5 million passengers a day, was suspended on safety grounds, while shopping malls and high street stores remained empty and shuttered.
The global financial hub remained peaceful but uneasy on the first day of a ban enacted by Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive, using the Emergency Regulations Ordinance – a sweeping colonial-era law that allows the government to bypass the legislature during a time of public danger.
Ms Lam introduced the unpopular measure on Friday in a bid to quell four months of anti-government protests, but tens of thousands immediately poured onto the streets in opposition. Demonstrations that spiraled into violent clashes and the shooting of a teenager by a plain clothes police officer under attack.
In anticipation of more unrest, supermarkets closed their doors early on Saturday as residents rushed to stock up on dried and canned foods, emptying shelves. Early closures by the 7/11 convenience store chain, known to stay open during typhoons, was greeted by widespread surprise.
ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP
At Jason’s, a normally bustling supermarket in downtown Kowloon, customers let out sighs of disappointment as they were denied entry.
Views on the lockdown were mixed. One man named Francis, who had just stocked up on “spam” said he was angry that the protesters had turned into “rioters” and said he did not believe the mask ban was an infringement on freedoms.
“We don’t know if the shops will be open tomorrow. This is a very sad time,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. We just don’t know what’s next.”
However, Gigi, 32, who also did not wish to use her full name, said she blamed the government, not the protesters for the inconvenience of shop closures.
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"If I go out tonight, it’s not the protesters that I would be afraid of, it’s the riot police, if you look at the action they’ve been taking in the past,” she said. "I support the protesters, like many people around my age. I feel that these inconveniences aren’t an issue."
On social media forums popular with the protesters, the broad consensus appeared to be in favour of a “rest day” on Saturday ahead of a renewed, “record-breaking” demonstration on Sunday.
However, small wildcat protests broke out in Kowloon and Causeway Bay as hundreds came out to defy the ban in unsanctioned marches.
In Kowloon, young people, mainly dressed in black, formed a human chain as they marched for several miles chanting pro-democracy slogans. “We are fighting against this law because it is contravening our freedoms,” said one young woman.
The police did not intervene to stop the acts of resistance or to enforce the face mask law, although in Causeway Bay reports emerged of two young people being stopped and questioned but not detained.
Addressing the city in a mid-afternoon broadcast, Carrie Lam used Friday night’s violence to justify her decision to invoke the emergency law for the first time since Hong Kong was ceded to China in 1997.
“The extreme acts of the rioters brought dark hours to Hong Kong last night and half paralysed society today. Everyone is worried, anxious and even in fear,” she said.
“The [Hong Kong] Government will curb the violence with the greatest determination. I appeal to everyone to support the [government] to stop the violence in accordance with the law and condemn violence together as well as dissociate from the rioters resolutely.”