Glue applied to pavement bricks outside government buildings was washed away amid heavy rain on Tuesday. The Hong Kong Observatory issued two red rainstorm signals during the morning.

Pro-democracy Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung posted pictures showing that the glue applied last week to the pavement had been washed off. “This time, even if glue was used, they could not be held together – you see, it’s everywhere!” he wrote on Facebook.

Photo: Fernando Cheung.

Workers have secured pavements outside the Central Government Offices and Legislative Council. They also glued bricks at the area outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Their work continued yesterday despite the rain, according to Apple Daily.

Timing

Pro-democracy Civic Party lawmaker Kenneth Chan Ka-lok told the Oriental Daily last Friday that he believed the security measure was related to Zhang Dejiang’s visit to Hong Kong next week. Zhang Dejiang is the head of the central government’s leading group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs as well as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body. He will visit the city between May 17-19 and will attend a Belt and Road initiative summit at the exhibition centre on May 18.

Zhang Dejiang. File Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The Highways Department told HK01 last Friday that gluing was a move to strengthen the bricks and prevent them from sinking into the ground. It said that there was a need to do this in “places where people gather or where there is a risk of damage.” Works to apply glue to bricks were set to be completed in mid-May, it said.