“Stop violence, contain chaos, restore order.” The terse message in a full-page advertisement from Bank of China Ltd.’s units in Hong Kong greeted local residents on Friday while the city braced for another weekend of unrest. Other Chinese organizations also placed similar ads on Friday.
Printed in the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po newspaper, the ad with the state-backed lender’s red logo at the bottom also urged readers to “support Hong Kong’s chief executive” and “support the police force.”
The public criticism of Hong Kong’s protesters by one of China’s largest financial institutions comes at a time when Beijing is attempting to quell one of the most significant challenges to its authority. The newspaper on Friday carried more than a dozen other similar messages from Chinese trade groups voicing support for their government.
“Anyone challenging sovereignty and destroying the ‘one country, two systems’ principle is absolutely not allowed,” the ad declared, echoing recent comments from Chinese authorities.