Name: Why Hong Kong has invoked emergency powers to ban face masks | Understanding Hong Kong
Uploaded: 2020-03-19T21:31:30.000Z
Duration: 2 min 43 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The chief executive in council decided at a special meeting

this morning to invoke the power under the Emergency Regulations

in the name of prohibition on face covering regulation, which

introduced a new law banning face masks in this city.

called the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, a colonial-era law

gives the government the right to introduce

a whole lot of very restrictive policies and laws

Now, it's granting the police extra powers to arrest people

The police force have a toolbox with effectively

one tool in it, and that tool is a mallet.

Now, in a way, you can't really blame the police

And their increasing brutality over the last few weeks

towards protesters, towards bystanders, and even

journalists, is a natural response to the escalation

It is essential for us to stop violence and restore calmness

Now, to a certain extent you can't really

even blame the Hong Kong government for the predicament

That's because Carrie Lam, the chief executive of the city,

does not have the power to compromise or to make

That is purely in the gift of the central government

The reason Chinese President Xi Jinping has no ability

if you had him allowing people in Hong Kong to vote

for their leaders what would the people in Shanghai, in Beijing,

If you're Xi Jinping the possibility of backing down

in the face of violent protests is also an incredibly dangerous

It means that almost certainly the protests

Almost certainly the crackdown is going to intensify.

And everything here is going to get worse.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Why Hong Kong has invoked emergency powers to ban face masks | Understanding Hong Kong

essentially

incredibly

essential

compromise