Hong Kong to Invoke Emergency Powers to Ban Masks at Protests Move to ban masks first time emergency law has been used in more than half a century By Neil Western and Natasha Khan
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-to-invoke-emergency-powers-to-ban-masks-at-protests-11570089982
Hong Kong’s cabinet will meet Friday to invoke emergency powers to tackle spiraling protests and lawlessness, starting with a ban on people wearing masks that are used to protect themselves from tear gas or hide their identities, people familiar with the plan said.
The city’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam called the special meeting of her executive council to propose the ban, which, if agreed, would become law Friday, one of the people said. The measure is almost certain to be approved as the cabinet comprises mostly pro-government figures.
Police and pro-Beijing groups ramped up calls for the British colonial-era law to be used for the first time in half a century after the city was rocked by the worst day of violence in 50 years during China’s National Day celebrations on Tuesday. Protesters and riot police clashed in more than a dozen districts, leaving more than 100 injured. Police shot one protester in the chest.
The shooting brought people back into the streets to condemn the city’s police force Wednesday evening, targeting subway stations. Police were mostly absent from the streets until about midnight. Officials, who fear similar scenes this coming holiday weekend, have been running out of options to contain the unrest that has increasingly taken over the city and has sent the economy tumbling toward a recession.
The government is taking the unusual step of invoking the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to “end the violence and restore law and order to the streets,” one of the people familiar with the plan said. It would be the first time it has been used since the British colonial government invoked it to suppress 1967 leftist riots that shook the city during China’s Cultural Revolution.
Although the law confers sweeping powers on the city’s leader to deal with emergencies, Mrs. Lam is proposing very limited use, to stop people from wearing masks that have become a fixture of protests, the person said. Any further curbs on people’s freedoms would need separate regulations passed by the cabinet under the emergency law.
The law, first passed in 1922, allows authorities to impose curfews, censor media, search premises and take the control of ports and all transport. The government has been reluctant to use the powers, which some advisers have warned could steepen economic decline by appearing to undermine the rule of law that underlies the city’s role as a financial center and safe base for foreign businesses.
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