By Tom Fowdy
Several days ago, a widely publicized incident took place at the Chinese Consulate General in Manchester, whereby figures were accused of attacking a Hong Kong protester who had decided to lodge a demonstration outside. Not surprisingly, mainstream media coverage quickly homed in on the situation and pointed blame at Beijing, stating they sought to silence and attack the protester by "dragging him into the consulate". Prime Minister Liz Truss's office also taken the opportunity to voice comment about the incident, deflecting from her disastrous policies and widespread unpopularity.
However, beyond the selective mainstream media footage wantonly accusing China of violence, a closer look at the full video finds that the Hong Kong protester involved in the row was engaging in violent conduct, repeatedly kicking a member of the Consulate in the head on the concrete, contradicting the western narrative of a "peaceful protest". There was no such violence shown by the other side. Despite that, the BBC ran with the tagline: "A Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was pulled into Chinese consulate grounds in Manchester on Sunday and beaten up."
Every conflict has two sides to the story, but the western media would have you believe here there was only one. Hong Kong rioters, who left the city following the imposition of the National Security Law two years ago, are now bringing their playbook to Britain. That being: The constant provocation of trouble in the bid to igniting a retaliation, and then subsequently framing themselves as the incident victims, complete with the comprehensive backing of the Western Mainstream Media who rallies to their narrative.
If you exclusively followed western mainstream media coverage of the Hong Kong riots from 2019-2020, you would assume that a series of completely peaceful "pro-democracy protesters" (as the BBC religiously describes it) were persecuted by the violent force of the law, and they did nothing wrong. The extremely violent nature of the protests they pursued was never given any critical coverage or serious scrutiny, which often involved attempts to destroy and shut down infrastructure, starting fires, hurling bricks and other missiles (which killed an elderly man) and beating up anyone who conflicted with their narrative.
The riots were a violent, foreign-backed insurrection, yet the Hong Kong police were depicted as oppressive purely for responding to these situations (and in context employed relative restraint even compared to how western police would handle such incidents), whilst China was demonized for the imposition of the National Security Law of which criminalized sedition, subversion and terrorism in the bid to finally restoring order and stability in the city. Since that time, legions of young Hong Kongers have taken advantage of the "British National Overseas" (BNO) scheme to move to Britain, where they have transplanted their protest movement with them and regularly held Anti-China demonstrations. But not surprisingly, they have taken their playbook with them.
Sometimes described as "jiujitsu politics"- as set out above, the goal is to deliberately pursue provocative behavior with the goal of inciting a reaction from a given target, where therein they play the victim, utilizing it to gain publicity and subsequently drive momentum to their cause. It always involves taking specific incidents out of context and claiming they were peacefully protesting. Thus, whilst there is no police force to target in Britain regarding China, protesters have identified they can stage provocations outside of Chinese consulates with the goal of getting a reaction. In doing so, they then claim they are "peaceful protesters" who are "being silenced by the Chinese government" and any acts of violence or misconduct they commit in the process are wiped from the narrative.
The British government's intervention in this incident is callous. Given history shows they have let American diplomats literally get away with murder, the singling out of China on this matter is deeply disturbing, and is little more than a distraction from a Liz Truss who is the most unpopular Prime Minister of all time. Yet going beyond her, the British State continues to believe it exerts a series of "special rights" in regards to Hong Kong and it is for this reason that the BBC propagandizes it so aggressively and provides such blatant one-sided coverage on the matter. The Hong Kong rioters and their tactics should be shown for what they really are, violent, unhinged and dishonest, as opposed to this constant mythology of the benevolent, peaceful protester. Yet one thing is for sure, locals will be glad that this behavior is now being brought to British shores and is no longer present within Hong Kong itself. There's no rolling back the national security law. Not now, nor ever.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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