Violent protests in Hong Kong hit economy hard: US scholar

HOUSTON -- The violent protests in Hong Kong are losing support and are battering the city's economy, Jon Raymond Taylor, a US academic has said.

"When you start doing things that are of a very violent nature, you're going to lose the support of people. You're going to scare people. You're going to impact Hong Kong's economy, which is by the way now happening," the political science and geography professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio told Xinhua in an interview last week.

Focusing his research on China for more than 20 years, Taylor, also the department chair, has closely followed the recent development in Hong Kong.

Defending the actions of Hong Kong police, he said the Hong Kong police "are quite correct."

"Any police officer would tell you if they're seeing threat to lives of not just individuals on the sidelines, but actual protesters themselves, let alone police officers, they're going to act. And anybody that doesn't understand that doesn't understand how police officers are supposed to operate to protect the public safety," he commented.

Speaking of the "one country, two systems" practice in Hong Kong, Taylor said the policy has been successful to maintain prosperity in the region over the past 20 years.

"It's been successful in encouraging and maintaining ... investments and investment opportunities" in Hong Kong, he said.