Protesters use hammers to break windows in the Legislative Council building during a protest in Hong Kong, China, on July 1, 2019. Credit – Eduardo Leal – Bloomberg / Getty Images
The takeover of the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6 shocked the world and attracted condemnation from politicians around the world. In China, many who attended the events in Washington DC immediately made comparisons to the violent occupation of the Hong Kong legislature in mid-2019.
Protests in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, began in June 2019 as a series of large-scale peaceful demonstrations against an extradition project that critics feared would be used by China as a weapon to silence dissidents. But pro-democracy rallies quickly turned into a snowball in an increasingly violent and destructive anti-government revolt.
In June 2019, Mayor Nancy Pelosi described the demonstrations in Hong Kong as “a beautiful sight to be seen”. Ten days later, on July 1, 2019 – the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty – a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, invaded and looted the legislative complex of the former British colony. They painted obscenities on the walls of the chamber, destroyed offices and destroyed accessories, causing nearly $ 6.5 million in damage.
His actions attracted little condemnation from Western politicians. While stating that “No violence is acceptable”, then UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted that Britain’s support for “Hong Kong and its freedoms” was “UNFORGETTABLE on this anniversary day”.
In an article published on Thursday on its homepage, the Chinese state agency Global Times The newspaper said: “Chinese web users still remember the anguish and anger they felt when they saw protesters in Hong Kong raiding the Legislative Council Complex, scribbling graffiti, breaking and stealing items, and instead of condemning violence, American politicians hailed the ‘courage’ of these mobs. “
Supporters of the Hong Kong protests have warned against creating a “false equivalence” between the siege of the Capitol and the looting of the Hong Kong legislature. But the Global Times posted a side-by-side comparison of scenes from the Hong Kong protests and Trump protesters inside the Capitol building. “It remains to be seen whether [Pelosi] it will say the same about recent developments on Capitol Hill, ”tweeted the newspaper.
Mocking Pelosi’s comments, China’s Communist Youth League also posted images on Capitol social media.
The Communist Youth League of China, in its official Weibo account, called the Capitol protests the “most beautiful place to see”, mocking Nancy Pelosi’s description of the Hong Kong demonstrations in 2019. pic.twitter.com/0tSwwBcVo4
– Lily Kuo (@lilkuo) January 7, 2021
Ann Chiang, a pro-Beijing lawmaker in Hong Kong, posted a video of the Washington DC turmoil on her Facebook page. “American lawmakers can finally experience this democratic violence and get a taste of what the legislative occupation is like,” she wrote, according to a translation from a local news site Hong Kong Free Press.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying criticized the contrasting rhetoric used to describe events in Hong Kong and the United States
“Now the mainstream media in the United States has unanimously criticized Trump’s violent fans in [Washington], saying it is a violent event and these protesters are mob, extremists … But what description did they use in the Hong Kong protest? ‘Beautiful view’. “
Chinese state-run media also used Pelosi’s words to criticize the US government when protests swept the US after the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Caution! ‘Nice view’ in HK is spreading across the USA, ”a Global Times headline read.
The U.S. government passed several laws in support of the Hong Kong protest movement, and the city has become a point of political conflict between China and the U.S.