Opinion

China’s state-run media Global Times rejoiced over the resignation on November 1 of Zhong Peiquan as the editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong independent media Stance News (立场新闻). Global Times named Stance News as being an anti-China, Hong Kong-destabilizing media similar to Hong Kong’s “Apple Daily.”

The article said, “Over the years, the online media have often published biased or even fabricated reports on the SAR government and the mainland.” “In April, after the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, Stance News published an interview with the then Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association Xia Boyil. Xia claimed that this was the first time that a Hong Kong court sentenced a ‘Peaceful Unapproved Assembly’ to prison, and declared that, “If citizens cannot vent their grievances through peaceful demonstrations, they may eventually turn to violence,” downplaying the actions of violent mobs. In May, Stance News reprinted an article entitled, ‘Looking at the Future of the Hong Kong Resistance Movement from the Experience of the Irish Resistance,’ which compared Northern Irish militants with the so-called ‘Hong Kong Resistance’  and encouraged the mobs to ‘make a last stand.’”

Global Times indicated that, “Even though Zhong resigned, he can still be investigated by law enforcement agencies for related criminal responsibility.”

It concluded with a comment published in Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily. “The clean-up of Hong Kong’s anti-China forces is just the beginning. Some of the opposition’s public opinion tools and media are still intact. They only managed to be more restrained after the fall of the Apple Daily. The article said that it is not enough to eradicate Apple Daily now. The soil of the media industry must be changed. ‘Some media must separate themselves from their history and be politically sensible.”

Source: Global Times, November 8, 2021
https://china.huanqiu.com/article/45Ul70y5260