HK officials slam 'regrettable' anti-mainland protest

Several senior Hong Kong government officials on Monday condemned a Sunday protest against Chinese mainland visitors, calling the "regrettable" event "irrational" and said the city would not tolerate similar incidents.

"We strongly condemn the harassment of tourists on Canton Road yesterday. It tarnished Hong Kong's tourism reputation as a hospitable metropolis," said So Kam-leung, secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong.

Over 200 protesters from a local activist group gathered near Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday afternoon and marched on the luxury shopping street popular among mainland tourists, forcing several stores to temporarily shut down.

Nearly 600 people said on Facebook that they would join the protest, demanding the Hong Kong government reduce the quota for mainland tourists. The increasing influx of mainland visitors - deemed "locusts" by their critics - have been taking up too much resources and disturbing local people's lives, they claimed.

Tam Chi-yuen, secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, said Monday that the harassing activity was "uncivilized." He stated that the majority of Hong Kong residents would like to see healthy cooperation with the mainland under the "one country, two systems" principle.

Hong Kong Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said on Monday that the protesters "humiliated" visitors and behavior that disrupts public security should be condemned.

Tourists from the Chinese mainland paid more than 40.7 million visits to Hong Kong in 2013, a 16.7 percent growth from 2012, according to data provided by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

So said on Monday that the government is aware of the fact that increasing tourist numbers had exerted a certain level of impact on local people's lives, but tourism made a decent contribution to the economy and created more job opportunities.

"Tourism made up about 4.5 percent of our GDP," So said. "We will closely communicate with the central government to reach the balance."