Paralysed by seething protesters and intransigent bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong's government lacks the power and experience to end the unprecedented political crisis in the city, analysts say.

The semi-autonomous international hub has been riven by increasingly violent protests for more than four months, with demonstrators demanding greater democracy and police accountability as violence spirals on all sides.

Yet so far, all the major steps taken by Beijing-backed city leader Carrie Lam have failed to deal a decisive blow against the movement or dissuade protesters from hitting the streets.

Some moves have fanned the flames further.

A ban on face masks during protests, using colonial-era emergency powers, sparked a wave of violence and vandalism that brought much of the city to a standstill earlier this month.

"Hong Kong's government is suffering from a profound legitimacy problem," said Ben Bland, director of the Southeast Asia Project at the Lowy Institute, a policy think-tank.

"It has no democratic mandate but has not been delivering enough benefits for its people to justify the authoritarian path it is taking."

Like her predecessors, Chief Executive Lam was appointed by a 1,200-strong committee stacked with Beijing loyalists.

A life-long bureaucrat, she displays little of a politician's feel for public opinion. And the Chinese government has refused years of calls for fully free elections.

- 'One city, two masters' -

China runs Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" model that grants the hub certain liberties but ensures the city's leadership ultimately answers to Beijing.

In comments leaked last month, Lam said she "serves two masters" -- Beijing and the Hong Kong people -- and admitted she had been given "very, very, very limited" room to manoeuvre when it came to solving the crisis.

"Lacking legitimacy and the political skills that come with competitive elections, Hong Kong's governing civil servants are clearly struggling," Bland told AFP.

There was a stark illustration last week of the political rancour faced by Lam, who currently has historic low approval ratings and has refused to step down, despite saying before her appointment she would do so if she ever lost popular support.

On both Wednesday and Thursday, she was heckled by pro-democracy lawmakers during the delivery and debate of a key policy address while her Facebook Live broadcast was inundated with angry emojis.

"Carrie Lam is now so widely hated that her every public utterance provokes irrational anger, regardless of the content," wrote Steve Vickers, from SVA risk consultancy, in a report released prior to the speech.

- Beijing's proxy -

The protests were sparked by huge public anger towards a now-scrapped bill allowing extraditions to mainland China, but have since morphed into a wider pro-democracy movement rooted in fears the city's unique freedoms are eroding under Beijing's tightening grip.

China agreed to keep the "one country, two systems" model for 50 years under the terms of Hong Kong's handover to China at the end of British colonial rule in 1997.

The city was not a democracy under the British either. But concern over the democratic deficit has only increased under Chinese rule, especially since Chinese President Xi Jinping ushered in the most authoritarian central government in a generation.

"The freezing of the political system in 1997 ensures there is no popular confidence that concerns and grievances will be addressed by an effective or responsible Hong Kong government, seen widely as a proxy for Beijing," Jeffrey A. Bader, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote in a recent commentary.

"The Hong Kong government lacks the capacity, will, or trust to respond effectively to the demonstrations."

Beijing has ramped up its rhetorical condemnation of the protests, portraying them as a foreign funded plot and not a popular expression of rage.

But it has so far avoided direct intervention, a strategy that analysts say is based on trying to limit damage to its international image and hoping the protests will eventually peter out.

Lam and her ministers are thus left with few options beyond ordering the protests to be quelled by police, who are now facing unprecedented levels of public hostility and violence.

And while Lam and Beijing have said some economic gripes have fanned public anger, they have dismissed the idea that Hong Kongers have any legitimate political grievances.

"The real issues are political and cultural," Nigel Inkster from the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a recent video commentary.

"What it boils down to is a fear by Hong Kong of coming under a Chinese system that seems ever more authoritarian, ever more repressive. That, of course, is a problem that Beijing does not know how to address."

Tear gas and water cannon as Hong Kong crowds defy rally ban
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 20, 2019 - Hong Kong police fired water cannon and tear gas Sunday as crowds held an illegal march, with hardcore protesters throwing petrol bombs and trashing businesses to cap a week of anger after recent attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators.

Authorities had forbidden the rally in Tsim Sha Tsui, a densely-packed shopping district filled with luxury boutiques and hotels, citing public safety and previous violence from hardcore protesters.

But tens of thousands nevertheless joined the unsanctioned demo, showing the movement can still keep pressure on the city's pro-Beijing leaders after nearly five months of protests and political unrest.

In a familiar pattern, the huge rally began peacefully.

But it soon descended into chaos as smaller groups of protesters hurled petrol bombs at police, subway entrances and at Chinese mainland bank branches, and vandalised multiple shops.

Police responded with volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets, and baton charges.

Throughout the afternoon, a water cannon truck chased protesters down Nathan Road, one of the city's busiest shopping thoroughfares, leaving it streaked with blue dye.

The dye in the water, used to identify protesters, also contains a painful pepper solution.

The entrance to the city's largest mosque was bathed in blue when the water cannon blasted a handful of people outside the building. Police said hitting the mosque was an accident.

As the protesters fled, frontliners stayed behind to slow the advance of riot police, setting fire to makeshift barricades. Clashes went on deep into the night.

A Xiaomi and a Best Mart store -- both mainland Chinese businesses -- were set alight.

- Activists attacked -

Tensions were running high after the leader of the group organising the weekend rally, Jimmy Sham, was hospitalised after being attacked by unknown assailants wielding hammers earlier in the week.

Then late Saturday, a man handing out pro-democracy flyers was stabbed in the neck and stomach, reportedly by an assailant who shouted pro-Beijing slogans.

Many on Sunday's march said they wanted to show they were unbowed by the attacks and moves by authorities to ban public gatherings.

"The more they suppress, the more we resist," a 69-year-old demonstrator, who gave her surname as Yeung, told AFP. "Can police arrest us all, tens of thousands of people?"

Philip Tsoi, a self-described frontline protester, said they needed to keep getting numbers out even though many hardcore activists like him had been "arrested or wounded" in recent weeks.

"What I want is a truly democratic government whose leader is elected by Hong Kong people instead of selected by a Communist regime," he told AFP.

Vigilante violence has mounted on both sides of the ideological divide.

In recent weeks pro-democracy supporters have badly beaten people who vocally disagree with them -- although those fights tend to be spontaneous outbursts of mob anger during protests.

In contrast, pro-democracy figures have been attacked in a noticeably more targeted way, with at least eight prominent government critics, including politicians, beaten by unknown assailants since mid-August.

Protesters have labelled the attacks "white terror" and accused the city's shadowy organised crime groups of forming an alliance with Beijing supporters.

Beijing has denounced the protests as a foreign-backed plot and condemned attacks on those voicing support for China.

But it has remained largely silent on the attacks carried out against pro-democracy figures.

- Months of unrest -

Hong Kong has now been battered by 20 weeks of protests and with no political solution in sight, clashes have intensified each month.

Hardliners have embraced widespread vandalism, while riot police are quick to respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and, more recently, live rounds.

The rallies were triggered by a now-abandoned plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland, but have morphed into wider calls for democracy and police accountability.

Protesters are demanding an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for those arrested and fully free elections, all of which have been rejected by Beijing and Hong Kong's unelected leader Carrie Lam.

Earlier this month, Lam invoked a colonial-era emergency law to ban face masks.

The decision set off a new wave of protests and vandalism that shut down much of the city's transport network.

In the last fortnight, the clashes have become less intense, with the city's subway closing each night at 10:00 pm.

But protests have continued, with many defying the mask ban during "flashmob" rallies.

Separately, Chinese state television CCTV claimed that "sooner or later," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will be punished for refusing to apologise for an earlier tweet by Daryl Morey of the Houston Rockets supporting the Hong Kong demonstrators.

CCTV accused Silver of "inventing lies to dirty China," and said that by defending Morey he had "crossed the bottom line by showing a lack of respect to Chinese."

The backlash against Morey's comments has cast a cloud over the NBA's lucrative broadcasting, merchandising and sponsorship interests in China, where it has legions of fans.

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Angry emojis flood Hong Kong leader's Facebook Live chat
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 17, 2019
Hong Kong's embattled leader took to Facebook Live late Thursday in a bid to reach out to citizens after months of political unrest - and the emoji count was far from kind. Carrie Lam - the city's unelected chief executive - currently boasts record low approval ratings as the financial hub convulses with more than four months of huge, increasingly violent pro-democracy protests. Backed by Beijing, her administration has refused to grant any major concessions to protesters, who are demanding g ... read more