The violent riots in Hong Kong are motivated by Sinophobia
Rioters launched fire-dipped arrows at police outside their university campus in Hong Kong on Wednesday, as the continuing impasse with the authorities moved up a gear, shifting from an Occupy-style stalemate to something like a Game of Thrones farce. We may well be witnessing the finale of the Hong Kong revolt. All schools and kindergartens were closed following a night of pitched battles that left campuses strewn with bricks and rubble. For the last five months, violent riots have rocked the city of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. Despite the activists’ claims that they are fighting for democracy, the truth is actually much more sinister. Countless examples of targeted violence and bigotry suggest that the movement is powered by a venomous hatred of mainland Chinese.
The protests began in June after the Hong Kong government was on the verge of passing an extradition bill that would formalize agreements with mainland China. The motive of the extradition bill was spurred by the murder of a pregnant Taiwanese woman by her boyfriend, a resident of Hong Kong. The murderer even admitted his guilt but escaped to Hong Kong before the Taiwanese authorities could pursue him, and to this day he remains a free man.
Despite the fact that the Hong Kong government compromised with the rioters and withdrew the bill, the riots became more aggressive, with regular, violent attacks on mainland citizens. In one instance, a mainland Chinese reporter was physically assaulted by a mob of native Hong Kongers, demonstrating their utter disdain for freedom of the press. In another instance, a Mandarin speaker from the mainland was again violently attacked by anti-government mobs, proving that a movement founded on the premise of equality and liberty clearly doesn’t believe those values apply to their fellow citizens across the Shenzhen River. Social media is now awash with evidence of destructive acts by rioters, including hurling Molotov cocktails at metro carriages.
While the rioters continue to argue that their opposition to the extradition bill is born out of a fear of the Chinese government’s separate legal system, their deafening silence regarding other current extradition crises around the world exposes their hypocrisy and double standards. The same people opposing extradition of the murderer back to Taiwan have no problem with the U.S. government spearheading the tyrannical extradition of Australian whistleblower, Wikileaks founder and human rights activist Julian Assange, from Ecuador to the UK simply because he released Hillary Clinton’s scandalous emails to the public in 2016. In the current circumstances in Hong Kong, it behoves those who are more politically astute to rein in the destructive tendencies of those who have shown themselves to be ineffectual at building a movement, let alone being able to win the argument for democracy.
Rioters proudly waved the British colonial flag during their protests despite the fact that under British rule, Hong Kong was forced at gunpoint to import opium, never experienced democracy and police brutality was rampant. Last month, the leadership of this fledgeling movement delighted in obtaining the apparent support of the US House of Representatives. To this day, the Hong Kong police have killed zero people. Hong Kong’s freedom index ranks third internationally, whereas the US and the UK were ranked significantly lower. Why would the rioters look up to countries with lower freedom index then their own? By advocating for the return of foreign imperialism and the support of China's global competitors, the rioters have shown their hatred of China is the primary cause of their "activism," instead of the so-called "universal suffrage."
Some protestors went so far as to put up posters at Hong Kong International University celebrating “September 18,” a horrendous event in Chinese history when Japan began its brutal invasion of Manchuria. Once again, this inexcusable display of repugnance — a sickening insult to the 20 million courageous Chinese who gave their lives resisting Japanese fascism during WWII — proves yet again that the poisonous anti-government movement in Hong Kong is riddled with sinophobic sentiment. Looking to outsiders for vacuous endorsements was the very opposite of what an actual protest for democracy. Instead consolidated its arguments and base at home, as well as reaching out to mainland Chinese citizens for solidarity and support, the rioters wave American flags and refuse to recognize their own ethnicity. Many rioters appear to be acting in a manner designed to force external intervention. But the rioters will soon discover that virtue signalers and career-oriented politicians in Washington, DC have little interest in championing anti-government riots, and no one with their right mind would support such blatantly racist movement.
Those hoping Beijing would respond to the Hong Kong revolt in a heavy-handed way have been sorely disappointed so far. Beijing can simply sit and wait as even those who supported the protests in their initial phase grow weary of the latest developments. The real losers right now are likely to be the two million or so locals who initially supported the rioters’ actions and demands. The ability to mobilize so many was a significant feat for a movement with its origins in petty separatist and anti-nationalist tendencies. But the earlier standoffs with police at Hong Kong airport, together with the more recent and increasingly acts of rage against mainland Chinese nationals, point to a movement built solely on sinophobia.
Freedom and democracy are noble ideas, but those who advocate for them must adhere to their own principles. Political violence under any circumstances should be universally condemned as a means of promoting one’s own ideals. By repeatedly displaying sinophobic prejudice against mainland Chinese, the Hong Kong rioters have unmasked themselves for the brazen and lawless hypocrites that they really are. Freedom and democracy have never been gently handed down to people by the superpowers. The Chinese people bears the scars of civil wars and revolutions that prove this point. Such struggles are what made China great in the first place.
