In a move that could greatly increase the power of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to suppress large-scale protests taking place in the city, a news channel has reported that the city may soon enforce the 1922 Hong Kong Emergency Regulations ordinance in a bid to ban protesters from wearing face masks.
The ordinance, last applied during the 1967 riots, allows the Chief Executive to make “any regulations whatsoever” considered “desirable in the public interest”. The public broadcaster TVB reported that the city would pass a face mask ban under the ordinance on Friday.
As Hong Kong's protests continue into their fourth month, protestors have been wearing the Guy Fawkes masks that was more recently popularised by the 2005 film V for Vendetta, in a bid to avoid being recognised by the police and by China’s extensive security apparatus which includes facial recognition.
The ordinance would made it possible to pass a ban on all face masks at rallies, as well as increase the scope for the government to make arrests, conduct searches of citizen’s homes, censor means of communication, control the movement of vessels of the harbours, ports and waters of Hong Kong, and apprehend, take to trial and punish persons ‘offending against the regulation against any law in force in Hong Kong’, amongst others.
In August, Lam had denied plans to impose the colonial-era ordinance, stating that existing laws would be enough to handle the situation.
The move comes as protests in the run-up to and aftermath of China’s National Day celebrations on October 1 grew more violent than before, with 30 policemen injured and over 100 protesters hospitalised. In addition, an Indonesian reporter was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet and one protestor was shot in the chest with a live round. October 1 was the deadliest day in Hong Kong since the protests began.
While the protests began in opposition to a now-recalled extradition bill that would have seen Hong Kong citizens taken to mainland China for prosecution under certain crimes, they have since snowballed into larger pro-democracy protests calling for greater police accountability and an investigation into human rights violations conducted by the police against protestors.
The Guy Fawkes mask has a long history of being associated with anti-establishment protest, referencing the 1605 Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British House of Lords. Guy Fawkes, one of its perpetrators, was caught by authorities and sentenced to death. Since then, November 5 has been commemorated in memory of the event.