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Thursday, July 09, 2020, 10:47
Rioters stage bad-taste drama with the West to damage China
By Andre Vltchek
Thursday, July 09, 2020, 10:47 By Andre Vltchek

The National Security Law for Hong Kong has been, as expected, approved, and all those anti-Beijing forces, in Hong Kong and abroad, went immediately to work, 24/7, doing precisely what they are paid to do: smearing China, dividing people of the HKSAR.

The strategy changed. Just a few weeks ago, rioters were encouraged, pushed into a physical confrontation with police and with the citizens who were supporting their country and its political system.

Now, the new chapter is called “Victimhood”.

Observed from far away, the HKSAR’s anti-Beijing “activists”, ruthless and rough, have been rapidly converting themselves into some third-rate actors, performing in an unbelievably tacky show.

The script has been written and regularly modified by professional playwrights (propagandists) in Washington and London, while actors had regularly been flown all the way to the West in order to undergo intensive training and to receive financial, ideological and logistical support.

From violent individuals, who were for months brutalizing and terrorizing Hong Kong streets, shopping malls and public spaces, rioters (still described in the West as “pro-democracy activists”) and their leaders suddenly converted themselves into “martyrs”. Their roles now consist of spreading arms in theatrical outrage, rolling eyes, and shouting into cameras, demanding “immediate intervention” and help from Washington and London.

Since last year, this extremely long, vulgar, but technically well-choreographed political soap opera attracted millions of viewers in all parts of the world. It is so diligently promoted, at least in the West, that it has been extremely difficult to escape. It beams from the television monitors, from the cover pages of newspapers, and the front pages of Yahoo and Google News.

Total contradictions were somehow overlooked: Many individuals from the territory with one of the highest freedom indexes in the world, much higher than in most of the Western countries, have been accusing Beijing of “curbing freedoms”. Washington was “outraged” that the territory with the second-most open economy on Earth, more open than that of the United States itself, was actually “not open enough”, and as a consequence, began dismantling the preferential status

The violence began in 2019, when rioters on purpose totally misinterpreted the proposed extradition amendment bill, which has since been scrapped. And violence continued — in fact, increased — without any reason or provocation from the local government or the government in Beijing. Brutal, often deadly riots received full-hearted support from Western embassies, governments, and mass media.

I witnessed and documented this drama, and on various occasions, faced verbal, even physical violence of so-called activists. They were fully absorbed in their roles. Truly diligent young people: They have been paid well, and they were working very hard for their money! The goal of their labor was well-defined: to destroy China.

Total contradictions were somehow overlooked: Many individuals from the territory with one of the highest freedom indexes in the world, much higher than in most of the Western countries, have been accusing Beijing of “curbing freedoms”. Washington was “outraged” that the territory with the second-most open economy on Earth, more open than that of the United States itself, was actually “not open enough”, and as a consequence, began dismantling the preferential status.

Things were turning into nothing less than a “theater of the absurd”.

Logically, Beijing and the administration of the SAR could not just stand by and observe how people in Hong Kong were beaten up, insulted, even killed. They couldn’t just tolerate the national flag being desecrated and burned, and let rioters openly beg the US and EU to “liberate” them.

And so the long-overdue National Security Law arrived, and was adopted.

Everybody knows that the security law was desperately needed and that most countries on Earth have it. US President Donald Trump knows it, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knows it, US Senator Marco Rubio, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Joshua Wong Chi-fung must be aware of it. And the same goes for Tsai Ing-wen.

But the theater play, its rigid script, does not allow them to admit that they know. They are opening eyes, in horror, pretending that the West does not have similar, even tougher, legislation.

Verbal insults are flying. Sanctions are imposed against China, even against the SAR.

Logic collapsed. But often there is no logic in “black comedies”, or in the theater of the absurd.

The most grotesque is a drama performed by some Hong Kong residents who are now considering fleeing to the UK, even Taiwan, as if their lives would be suddenly in danger.

Nathan Law Kwun-chung leaving for golden exile. Other pro-Western “leaders” ready to follow, Taiwan preparing for Hong Kong “migrants”, and the UK offering citizenship and permanent residence to millions.

As if something would be really happening!

But nothing is taking place internally. This theater, this drama, is actually not reacting to events. It is itself a catalyst, which supposes to provoke, to put things into motion. It is designed to break Hong Kong internally, to damage China. Step by step.

On July 3, CNN commented:

“Article 4 of the law says, ‘The freedoms of speech, of the press, of publication, of association, of assembly, the procession and demonstration’ will be protected. But it also criminalizes the leaking of ‘state secrets’, a vague term commonly used in China to cover a range of issues deemed to be in the national interest.”

But which country on Earth does not criminalize leaking of state secrets? There are many people in US prisons, serving long sentences because they “betrayed” or leaked state secrets. Julian Assange is having his life ruined right now, precisely because he exposed countless “secrets” of his government. And Edward Snowden, a whistleblower, lives in exile in Russia because if he returned to the US, his life would be in grave danger.

But such comparisons are discouraged. And the script deters actors, in this case, the media, from asking uncomfortable questions.

It is China, only China, exclusively China, that is criticized for defending its laws, its national integrity, and its statehood.

Only the West can do it because the West itself unilaterally declared that it is “democratic”. China cannot do it because it is “communist”. Twisted, primitive “logic”, but if repeated thousands of times in Washington and London, and spread by Western mass media outlets, billions of human beings all over the world may take it as truth.

China has to protect itself and its people, including those who are living in Hong Kong.

The West created terrible crises or called it an emergency in Hong Kong. It wrote an entire complex script, which is aiming at ruining both the SAR and all of China.

It is all extremely bad theater. But a deadly, effective one. And actors are paid well, royally. Therefore, if not stopped, they will make sure not to abandon their roles.

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. He is the author of 20 books including“China’s Belt and Road Initiative”, and “China and Ecological Civilization". 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily. 


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