Several days ago, the BBC led with a feature piece titled: Silenced And Erased, Hong Kong’s Decade Of Protest Is Now A Defiant Memory. Reflecting the long-gone “umbrella movement” of 2014 as the start of a decade of unrest in the city, the article effectively bemoaned the city’s return to stability, while also seemingly expressing resentment at the special administrative region’s being harmonious with the Chinese mainland. As it notes, “On the surface, Hong Kong appears to be the same, its packed trams still rumbling down bustling streets, its vibrant neon-lit chaos undimmed,” before bemoaning that “hopes for a freer Hong Kong have withered” and making contemptuous references to “exultations of China, the motherland”.
It was five years ago this week that I visited Hong Kong at the climax of the riots. The city I once lived in had been torn apart by an extreme level of violence and destruction that was openly cheered on by the Western mainstream media and Western politicians, who continue to this day to portray it as an innocent struggle for freedom and democracy. I saw many things during this trip, including how entire university campuses had been ransacked, metro stations smashed up and burned down, streets torn up, traffic lights broken, stores and shop fronts of certain brands relentlessly targeted and graffiti everywhere. Hong Kong had been reduced to a state of anarchy, and yet the same media and political figures cheering it on then have done their best to try to undermine the city’s response to it ever since, as if to suggest putting a stop to the chaos somehow constituted a form of “oppression”.
But the truth is, even from my experience, the sentiment that broke out into this violence, as the BBC suggests, goes back much longer. It was 2015-16 when I studied at the University of Hong Kong, in the aftermath of the “umbrella movement”, and during this time I discovered that the campus had already been captured by an extremely radicalized political culture that espoused open contempt and mass paranoia related to all things China. The local student noticeboards on campus contained slogans insisting the territory was not part of China, and McCarthyism was found around every corner.
One evening, students decided to object to a new appointment on the university’s executive committee that was deemed to be “pro-Beijing”. They responded by trying to undermine a meeting the committee was having that night by violently blocking the building to try to stop it from being held. It was this moment, long before the riots of 2019-20, that I ultimately became aware of the malign, hysterical and aggressive nature of the Hong Kong movement, which fundamentally sought to deny the city’s existence as part of China. It is easy for the media to continue to push the line that these people are just “pro-democracy” supporters, yet the disdain for China and its people in general seemed to extend to their very core. Hence, during the 2019 riots, even speaking Mandarin could result in you becoming subject to violence.
But roll forward to 2024 — this movement is gone, and there should be no tears for it. Although the Western mainstream media publish articles every day constantly proclaiming the “end” or “decline” of Hong Kong, life continues as normal in the city, which has finally found stability and public order again. It is as insincere as it is dishonest to genuinely believe that a nonstop cycle of violent protests and insurrection was somehow the true key to prosperity and progress in the city; where could it have led? The rioters made it absolutely clear that they would not stop until all their demands were met, seeking to effectively undermine the political system of the HKSAR and thus the sovereignty of China as a whole. This was an explicit threat to the rule of law and would not be tolerated anywhere else.
Hence, we might remind ourselves that in Britain, following the far-right riots of August, hundreds of people were swiftly jailed on charges of “violent disorder” and the even more severe charge of “riot”, for their attacks against police, people and properties throughout the country, with even people being jailed for social media posts encouraging or supporting it. Is this not an attack on democracy and freedom of speech? Why is it acceptable for Britain, but not Hong Kong? But then again, we might ask ourselves, is this behavior acceptable anywhere? We should not miss the Hong Kong riots, nor the brazen external political interference that encouraged and supported them.
The author is a British political and international-relations analyst.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
