Over the past few months, your news feed has no doubt been flooded with footage from Hong Kong’s massive pro-democracy protests.
Hundreds of thousands of people are continuing to take to the streets each weekend as a powerful symbolic rejection of mainland China’s increasing reach.
Only those residing in the mainland aren’t getting this side of the story. At first, they were barely seeing anything about the demonstrations. Now, the only picture being presented to them is one of violent thugs lashing out at authority figures, and showing unwarranted disrespect to a benevolent Beijing.
In other words, the one thing China initially kept away from the Hong Kong protests is now its biggest weapon — its state media.
It’s a careful tactic by an authoritarian government seeking to take control of an increasingly uncontrollable situation.
“The Chinese Government is trying to weaponise the protests. Rather than trying to completely hide them from the Chinese people they’re employing tactics to highlight violence and say these are ‘terrorists’ working at the beheadst of foreign governments, like the US,” Dr Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told news.com.au.
“They’re trying to shape the narrative to their needs.”
And it could reach a bloody end point.
HOW CHINA IS USING FAKE NEWS AS A WEAPON
When the Hong Kong protests started, China’s state media was largely silent. As far as its people were concerned, there was nothing worth mentioning taking place south of Shenzhen.
When the first major protests began on June 9, the Chinese Government sought to downplay it, with state media reports erroneously claiming the majority of people were rallying in
defence of joining the mainland.
This is typical of the Xi Jinping-led government, which runs its own regulated version of the internet through a Great Firewall that blocks content it doesn’t want its citizens to see, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and various western news outlets.
At this time, the demonstrators were coming up with ingenious ways of forcing mainland citizens to digest their message, air-dropping memes and flyers in simplified Chinese to strangers at Kowloon’s popular metro stations frequented by mainland tourists.
But fast-forward 10 weeks, and the Xi Jinping-led government’s state media has embraced the protests, actively pushing footage and editorials distorting the events to send a message both to mainland residents and Chinese citizens abroad.
Their daily coverage routinely describes the protests as “riots”, and the protesters as “thugs” and “radicals”.
Any footage or events with angles that could lend sympathy or support to the mainland are amplified across China’s state media channels.
Take, for example, the
.
In western media and online, the man was derided as “trash” and “entitled” for degrading the protesters’ plight over something as trivial as a missed flight.
But nationalistic state media outlet
The Global Times shared the video on Twitter as proof of foreigners defending the mainland over the Hong Kong protesters, stating that the protesters “got in the way” and that the defender “fought back”.
There are increasing instances of Chinese state media now posting out-and-out fake news about the demonstrations.
For example, one widely shared video on Weibo shows a female protester who lost an eye from a rubber bullet last weekend appearing to accept payment from other protesters, suggesting the incident was staged.
The woman accepting the cash in the video was not the same protester who lost an eye. Regardless, China’s state television network posted the video on its website, insinuating but stopping short of directly stating that the protesters were paid actors.
In another incident, a video appeared showing a protester with a toy weapon. The
China Daily circulated it as erroneous evidence that the protesters were resorting to gun violence.
China’s coverage of the demonstrations aims to spark nationalistic fervour among readers — not just through criticising the protesters, but inspiring support for defenders of the mainland.
Earlier this week, Chinese state media effectively turned one of its reporters into an overnight sensation following his altercation with protesters.
Fu Guohao, a
Global Times journalist, was tied up and assaulted after getting into an altercation with demonstrators at Hong Kong airport earlier this week.
According to
, Fu was taking close-up photos of protesters. Throughout the movement, many protesters have gone to lengths to conceal their identities with face masks, goggles and umbrellas, fearing they will be tracked down by authorities.
When protesters asked him to show his press identification, he reportedly refused and tried to leave.
“He said in English that he was a tourist,” one protester later told reporters. “If he had co-operated and did not try to run away, I believe we would not have had such a big reaction.”
Photos and videos show black-clad protesters using cable ties to bind the man’s hands and legs. As he was being tied up, he said: “I support Hong Kong police. You may now beat me up.”
When mainland China got hold of the story, Fu became an overnight sensation. State media pushed the image of him as a pro-Beijing poster boy. The footage of his restraint spread across Chinese social media, and his expression of support for the Hong Kong police went viral.
China’s
People’s Daily newspaper has praised Fu for his “manliness”, writing: “Let’s remember Fu Guohao and his awe-inspiring righteousness while being held. This is what a dignified and upright Chinese should be like.”
Long story short, if you’re a Chinese citizen right now, you’re getting sold a story about thuggish demonstrators hurling bricks at police officers and seeking to topple the system.
The “why” is deliberately hazy, even though the protesters have been transparent with their aims from the start; they want the permanent withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill, an independent investigation into police corruption, and reassurance that mainland China would let them enjoy their civil liberties and freedoms until 2047, as was initially agreed upon.
This is propaganda at its finest. And already, it seems to be making its mark.
