Chinese Official Urged Hong Kong Villagers to Drive Off Protesters Before Violence at Train Station

A front view of the village of Nam Pin Wai, where groups of suspected attackers at the Yuen Long train station were surrounded by police, in Hong Kong, China on July 23, 2019. James Pomfret/Reuters

HONG KONG—A week before suspected triad gang members attacked protesters and commuters at a rural Hong Kong train station on July 21, an official from China’s representative office urged local residents to drive away any activists.

Li Jiyi, the director of the Central Government Liaison’s local district office made the appeal at a community banquet for hundreds of villagers in Hong Kong’s rural New Territories.