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Chinese Articles about Hong Kong That Western Media May Not Have Covered

{Editor’s Notes: Recently, the world has paid close attention to the Hong Kong people’s protests against the controversial extradition bill that would have enabled China to extradite anyone on Hong Kong soil. People are extremely concerned that the bill will allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to arrest any political dissident or any other person at will. As the Hong Kong government insisted on passing the bill, the people went to the streets for non-violent protests on several different days.

While Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that the controversial extradition bill will be suspended indefinitely, the world is still watching.

The following are excerpts from Chinese articles that offer a different perspectives and may help readers develop a more comprehensive grasp of the Hong Kong situation.}

Timeline of the events (all times are based on Hong Kong time, which is the same as Beijing time):

  • June 9: Over one million people took to the streets in protest
  • 11 am on June 12: tens of thousands of people protested in front of the Legislative Council before the planned debate on the bill
  • 3 pm on June 12: Hong Kong police opened fire with tear gas, baton rounds (rubber bullets) and pepper spray, causing at least 72 to be injured with 2 in serious condition.
  • 9:20 pm on June 12: Xi Jinping arrived at Kyrgyzstan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit.
  • 5:30 am on June 13 (10:30 pm June 12 London time): Liu Xiaoming, China’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, stated in an interview with the BBC Newsnight program that the Central Government of Beijing did not ask for the China Extradition bill,.
  • June 15: Nearly two million people took to the streets to protest again.
  • June 16: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam apologized for proposing the bill and stated it would be suspended.
  • June 17: The spokesperson of China’s Foreign Affair Ministry “strongly condemned the violent behavior (in Hong Kong)” and stated the Central Government’s “firm support” for Carrie Lam and the Hong Kong police. {1}
  • June 18: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam offered her “Sincere and Solemn” apology and suggested she had effectively shelved the bill. {2}

Beijing’s View: Hong Kong Is the “Worst Region” in China {3} {4}

A video of a speech given by a Chinese military general Xu Yan circulated on the internet around June 12. The video was taken during the 12th National Outstanding Teachers’ Development Forum held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province from November 5th to 7th, 2018.

Xu, in military uniform, talked about the Hong Kong issue. Xu said that, when the CCP took back Hong Kong in 1997, he and the officers of the PLA army stationed in Hong Kong participated in a study of the social situation in Hong Kong. “The social foundation of Hong Kong is the worst in China. It is even worse than Taiwan. There are not many people in Taiwan who really oppose the Communist Party. Eighty percent of the local residents in Taiwan do not care about the Communist Party and 20 percent of them are there because of the national civil war.”

Hong Kong residents, accordingly to Xu, can be categorized into three equally sized types. The first one is the original resident who a received Hong Kong and British education. They therefore do not have much hatred for the mainland. The second type consists of people who escaped to Hong Kong from 1949 to 1950 [Editor’s note: The CCP took over the mainland at that time and launched various political movements to cleanse out the capitalists and landlords.] This group is “the worst” and has an “implacable hatred” for the CCP. The last group consists of the refugees who fled to Hong Kong during the Great Famine of 1958 to 1961 and don’t have a good impression of the CCP, either.

Xu claimed that it was a big mistake that the CCP did not implement “decolonization” work in Hong Kong. [Editor’s note: In this instance Xu’s “decolonization” means to enable the CCP to exert control over the political, educational, social, and economic systems in Hong Kong so as to correct the concepts, thinking, and value systems left over from British colonial rule.] Not changing the education system for Hong Kong students caused them to “riot.” “Their teaching materials should have been changed to the ones that the mainland uses.”

Xu pointed out that one big lesson to learn is, in Hong Kong, there was an over-emphasis on the “two systems,” but not enough emphasize on “one country.” He also said that, after the new chief executive, Carrie Lam, took office, two things went well. The first is that the three student leaders from occupy central were put in prison. The second is that, starting this year, the textbooks in Hong Kong will be changed to the ones that the CCP uses in the mainland.

Beijing’s Statement: “The Central Government Never Instructed Hong Kong to Modify Its Law” {5} {6} {7} {8}

In a live interview with BBC’s Newsnight host Mark Urban on June 12, China’s Ambassador Liu Xiaoming made the following statement: “You portrayed the story as the Hong Kong government making this amendment after instructions from the Central Government. As a matter of fact, the Central Government gave no instructions and gave no order about making an amendment. It was the Hong Kong government that initiated this amendment.”

China’s UK embassy website published the full script of the interview in English. Global Times English republished the English script. Several popular Chinese online media companies, including Sina and 163.com published the interview in the Chinese translation, with the article title being, “China’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming Takes an Exclusive Interview with the BBC: The Central Government Never Instructed Hong Kong to Modify Its Law.”

Many media commented that Hong Kong government would not have introduced the extradition bill if it Beijing did not ask for it or approved it. Also, Liu, as an Ambassador, does not have a high enough status to talk about Hong Kong, and therefore, would not make such a statement out of his own will. He must have been authorized to speak for Beijing at this time.

Hong Kong People’s View: Beijing Is Faking Public Support for Amending Bill {9}

After one million Hong Kong people marched on June 9 to protest the introduction of the bill, Geng Shuang, spokesperson for the CCP, claimed at a news conference on June 10, that 800,000 Hong Kong people had signed up for the “Great Alliance to Protect Hong Kong’s Safety and Support the Bill’s Amendment.”

Epoch Times reported that a netizen showed a Facebook posting that unveiled how Beijing faked that number:

“A (Beijing representative) wrote the following comments on the official signup page: ‘Hope everyone can write the names of all of your relatives, friends, and even your elementary school classmates and middle school classmates. You can also write just a few English letters such as ‘abcd.’ As for the phone number, you can just write ‘1234.’ Hope everyone will support this. A person can open unlimited email accounts (to sign) and recommend you sign up again every 10 or 15 minutes.”

 Hong Kong People’s Suspicion: “Hong Kong Police” Are From Beijing? {10}

Epoch Times reported, “Hong Kong senior media professional Liu Xiliang expressed that the government might have already decided to escalate the use of force against the protesters. Even at the ‘Mong Kok Riot’ (February 8, 2016, a very violent clash between police and street vendors), the police didn’t use rubber bullets to shoot at the rioters. Liu also pointed out that there were spears and bricks at the site; it was not clear who had put them there.

The Radio and Television of Hong Kong station recorded that a Hong Kong legislator asked the “riot police” at the front row to announce their names and police ID numbers and to show their police cards. Not one of them responded. Some police in plain clothes tried to cover for them. According to Hong Kong’s police regulation, police on duty must present their IDs.

There are several other points that made people wonder whether these “Hong Kong” police were not true Hong Kong police but were instead “imported” from Mainland China. A netizen reported that he recorded a male police officer’s police ID number and later inquired about it, He found it belonged to a female police officer. Some protesters reported that they heard police officers talking in Mandarin. Hong Kong police normally speak fluent Hongkongese (also called Cantonese) but are usually not good with Mandarin. However, the police or soldiers from the mainland speak Mandarin but not Cantonese. Also, some netizens took pictures of many police officers taking group pictures on Hong Kong’s streets.

There was a report that Beijing had stationed riot police and armored vehicles at the border of Hong Kong. Also, an insider verified that Beijing’s armed police arrived in Hong Kong wearing plain clothes.”

A Chinese Commentator: Jiang Zemin’s Son and Grandson Were Behind the Crisis {11}

While many reports criticized Xi Jinping for being responsible for the Hong Kong problem, a YouTube video offers a different view. Its theory is that former CCP leader Jiang Zemin and Xi each have their own faction. They fight against each other. Jiang’s family has control of Hong Kong and they recently decided to sacrifice Hong Kong to create trouble for Xi. The transcription of certain part of the video follows:

At the 10:55 minute mark:

“Jiang Zemin’s family is the biggest beneficiary of (China’s) reform and opening up.

Jiang’s family is the biggest beneficiary of Hong Kong’s freedom and rule of law.

Jiang’s family has used several Hong Kong businessmen to collect and launder their money. Hong Kong is the transfer station for Jiang’s family to move trillions of Renminbi overseas.

Hong Kong’s real power holder is Jiang Zhicheng, Jiang Zemin’s grandson. Jiang Zhicheng founded a company called Boyu Capital in 2010 and plays at the trillion-dollar level.”

At the 17:14 minute mark:

“Carrie Lam (who is in Jiang’s faction) didn’t want to stop the China Extradition bill after a million people went to the streets. This suggests the following possibilities:

Jiang is about to pass away It may be Jiang’s son Jiang Mianheng and Jiang’s grandson Jiang Zhicheng that made the wrong political decisions in Hong Kong.

Jiang Mianheng and Jiang Zhicheng decided to leave Hong Kong for fear that Xi Jinping might take them down after Jiang Zemin’s death.

They wanted to ruin Hong Kong to create trouble for Xi Jinping.”

At the 18:54 minute mark:

“Some Western politicians are proposing to freeze the assets of those CCP officials who have committed human rights crimes in China. Jiang’s family has accumulated enormous wealth. Some reports say that Jiang Zhicheng himself has half a trillion US dollars and Jiang’s family has one trillion US dollars. (This much money) presents a big threat to the Western countries. (Therefore, the Western countries are likely to take them on.)

Jiang’s family thus created the China Extradition bill to intensify the conflicts between China and the Western countries and to take all of the Chinese people down along with them.”

Chinese Commentator: Hong Kong Still Has Its Soul {12}

Commentator Yuan Bin wrote an article in the Epoch Times to praise the Hong Kong people’s courage in defending their freedom.

“To tell you the truth, before June 15, 2019, I had never thought that the CCP and the Hong Kong government would postpone the amendment to the law, not to mention that Carrie Lam would apologize to the Hong Kong people. Not only me, probably most of the people had not thought of this, either.

Now, though the China Extradition law has not been withdrawn yet, it has been suspended indefinitely. The Hong Kong people have basically won!

The victory was not easy. Millions of Hong Kong’s people took to the streets twice, step by step. It was their determination that led them to the streets. They would rather die in defending their freedom; they would rather face  pepper spray, rubber bullets, and  tear gas, and risk prison terms.

If we say Hong Kong has its soul, this is the Hong Kong soul!

I cannot forget how Jie Ping, a participant in the parade, described the June 9 parade: ‘1.03 million Hong Kong people wearing white clothes walked on the street. It took eight hours for the entire line, from the first person to the last one, to walk from the Victoria Park to Admiralty, for a distance of 3.7 km… There are 3.8 million registered voters in Hong Kong, including the non-permanent resident adults, one in every five adults walked out.’

I cannot forget a new immigrant named Nike who told Radio Free Asia, this is all of the people resisting the tyrant, the whole of Hong Kong is resisting the CCP, the first time for a direct-in-the-face, true resistance against the CCP.

I cannot forget a 22-year old college student. The police beat his head until he bled This was at the Umbrella movement 5 years ago when he was a junior student in High School. He said this time, ‘As long as Hong Kong has not been turned into a normal mainland city that is completely under Beijing’s control, we will fight for her to the last moment.”

I cannot forget on June 12, a Catholic student organized protesters to sing hymns. The 24-year old Sunny Leung said to the reporter, ‘Though Hong Kong might die, but we cannot die quietly. We will protest, till the end.’

I cannot forget on the evening of June 12, a group of Hong Kong mothers gathered at the Chater Garden in Central. Chen Jinmei exclaimed, ‘We are the second generation of the Tiananmen Mothers. We must stand up before our children are killed. Let’s not wait until 30 years later to request redressing. Let’s stand up now at the first moment!’

I cannot forget a wedding gown store posted the notice to hold a strike on June 12, ‘For our children, for our future, please allow us to be brave!’

I cannot forget what the 28-year old Teacher Liu told the Guardian, ‘I had never participated in any protest before this week, but I’m a teacher. I realize that if I don’t come forward, I can no longer face my students. This determines their future.’

I cannot forget that the writer Daisy Wong decided to stop working with the Hong Kong Economic Journal after writing a column there for 11 years, because the newspaper refused to let her post ‘Both Humans and Gods Are Condemning’ in her column.

I cannot forget Ricky, the manager of the Hong Kong police cafeteria resigned right away, even losing a month of salary, after the police opened fire on people on June 12.

I cannot forget a picture on Internet that a weak young woman sat calmly in meditation in front of a group of strong police officers who held shields and other equipment, to block them from pursing protesters. (Editor’s Note: Her name is “Lam Ka Lo.” Some media called her the “Shield Girl,” the Hong Kong version of the “Tank Man” in the Tiananmen Square Massacre.)

There were still many more cases.

I believe, as long as its soul is there, Hong Kong will not sink! The Pearl of the Orient will forever shine!”

Endnotes:
{1} Chinascope, “Beijing Backs Hong Kong Chief Executive and Insists June 12 Protest A ‘Riot,’” June 19, 2019.
http://chinascope.org/archives/18837.
{2} The Guardian, “Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam offers ‘sincere and solemn’ apology,” June 18, 2019.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/18/hong-kong-carrie-lam-to-apologise-to-protesters-extradition-bill.
{3} RFA, “China General Called Hong Kong as the Worst Region in China,” June 14,2019.
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/gangtai/ql1-06142019062339.html.
{4} Chinascope, “Chinese Military General Claimed that Hong Kong is the Worst Region in China,” June 17, 2019.
http://chinascope.org/archives/18809.
{5} Chinese Embassy at the United Kingdom Website, “Ambassador Liu Xiaoming Gives Exclusive Live Interview to BBC Newsnight,” June 13, 2019.
http://www.chinese-embassy.org.uk/eng/tpxw/t1671788.htm.
{6} Global Times English, “Ambassador Liu Xiaoming Gives Exclusive Live Interview to BBC Newsnight,” June 12, 2019.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1154076.shtml
{7} Sina, “China’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming Taking the Exclusive Interview with BBC: The Central Government Has Never Instructed Hong Kong to Modify Its Law,” June 13, 2019.
https://mil.sina.cn/2019-06-13/detail-ihvhiews8573330.d.html?vt=4.
{8} 163.com, “China’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming Taking the Exclusive Interview with BBC: The Central Government Has Never Instructed Hong Kong to Modify Its Law,” June 13, 2019.
https://news.163.com/19/0613/12/EHI7L8110001875N.html.
{9} Epoch Times, “Several Hundred Thousand Hong Kong People Supporting Amending the Law? The CCP’s Fake Number Was Exposed,” June 12, 2019.
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/6/12/n11317274.htm.
{10} Epoch Times, “Yang Ning: Has Xi Jinping Figured out That Someone Is Setting Him up in Hong Kong?” June 15, 2019.
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/6/14/n11323317.htm.
{11} YouTube, “One Million Hong Kong People Protest China Extradition Bill,” June 13, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FCTwXbHKdo.
{12} Epoch Times, “Yuan Bin: Hong Kong Soul,” June 18, 2019.
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/6/18/n11329611.htm.