WEB DESK
A pro-Beijing politician in Hong Kong was wounded in a knife attack today, the latest tit-for-tat political violence to break out in a city engulfed by seething pro-democracy protests.
According to media reports, a man holding a bouquet approached pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho this morning as the politician was campaigning in his constituency of Tuen Mun, a town on the outskirts of Hong Kong near the border with China.
The stabbing came as the city’s leader Carrie Lam said her resolve to crack down on the protesters had been bolstered by a recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The international finance hub has been convulsed by five months of huge and increasingly violent protests calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.
With Beijing and Lam refusing to offer a political solution to the protesters’ grievances, violence has spiralled on both sides of the ideological divide.