Hong Kong's dearth of press freedom on display in the wake of recent protests and their aftermath in Beijing and Manchester, England

Alas, much of Hong Kong's press is no longer free :(
 

"We don't want nucleic acid tests, we want food. We want freedom, not lockdowns. We want dignity, not lies.  We want reform, not revolution.  We want votes, not a dictatorship.  We are citizens, not slaves.  Students, workers, people -- strike against the dictator and traitor, Xi Jinping"!  Thus read the messages (written in simplified Chinese) on banners unfurled from Beijing's Sitong Bridge last Thursday.

 

The courageous man who put up the banners was soon apprehended by the police and there are (justifiable) fears for his safety.  We're talking about a regime whose reaction to dissent tends towards the extreme.  Consider, if you will, that within a day of the Sitong Bridge protest, most references to the event had been scrubbed from China’s heavily censored internet; with restricted terms on the country’s major social media platforms not only including “Sitong Bridge” and “brave man” to also include words as vague as “bridge” and “courage”, the name of a person speculated to have put up the banners -- and even "Beijing", the name of China's capital city!       

 

In Hong Kong, the words "Beijing", "bridge" and even "Sitong Bridge" have not been censored by the authorities -- proof that the Great Firewall of China has not encircled it.  Yet.  But it is worth noting that this incident, which has had many people comparing "Bridge Man" to 1989's "Tank Man", has not been reported by the bulk of the local Hong Kong press.

 

As AFP's Xinqi Su was moved to Tweet: "None of HK’s mainstream media (newspapers, online platforms, TV news, radio news) have the report of the #SitongBridge protest except HK01, a Chinese online news outlet, [which] had a short-lived, now-replaced report last night."  Among the rare local outlets that have covered are the Hong Kong Free Press and -- by republishing a Bloomberg piece -- The Standard). 

 

For, as noted in the aforementioned Bloomberg syndicated piece:"Self-censorship has escalated dramatically [in Hong Kong].  A year ago, RTHK deleted coverage of the Peng Shuai scandal, whilst SCMP repeatedly failed to mention that a top official had been accused of sexual assault".

 

And we see self-censorship on display on the part of Hong Kong's media outlets once again in the wake of a shocking event which took place in Manchester, England, on Sunday; the news of which has dominated the Hong Kong Twitterverse in recent days and also been headlined in various British media (including the BBC) but has not been reported by Hong Kong's RTHK -- and, from what I've heard, any of Chinese language pro-Beijing outlets.

 

For those who have yet to learn what happened, here are a few paragraphs from the afore-mentioned BBC report: "A Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was pulled into Chinese consulate grounds in Manchester on Sunday and beaten up.  [Initially u]nidentified men [who have since been identified as including Consul General Zheng Xiyuan and Deputy Consul General Fan Yingjie] came out of the consulate and forced a man inside the compound before he escaped with the help of police and other demonstrators.  The protester told the BBC: "They dragged me inside, they beat me up."" And videos circulating online show precisely this.

 

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent, James Landale, stated the following: "Protests outside embassies and consulates in Britain often involve a few scuffles. Police are often on hand to keep the peace.  "But rarely do consular staff emerge on to the street to pull down banners and posters. And even more rarely are protesters dragged through the gates and apparently beaten up.  So it is not surprising there are growing calls for the [British[ Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, to summon China's ambassador in Britain for an explanation."  

Something that's also not surprising to Hong Kongers will be the aggression of China's "diplomats" and officials who feel obliged to defend the regime's "honour".  As historian Jeppe Mulich (who I think qualifies as a honorary Hong Konger based on his knowledge and experience of Hong Kong) Tweeted today: "If you've just read the news about a Hong Kong protester getting beaten up by PRC consular staff in Manchester and are feeling outraged, do read up on what's been happening to HK protests on university campuses and in public streets. What's new here is the brazenness, not the act."  

 

And it having taken place in Britain rather than in some part of China -- or, for that matter, Asia that's been subject to China's aggression.  And in view of this happening in a part of the world which has a robust free press, I sincerely hope that attention will continue to be drawn to the event, and many thousands, if not millions, of eyes opened regarding China's bullying ways as a result.