Hong Kong student leaders and their families face anonymous threats | Hacker News Reader

Hong Kong student leaders and their families face anonymous threats

hongkongfp.com

222 pointskzzzznot59 comments

Every Chinese celebrity have written the exact same post on their social media [1-3]. I don’t know if their views are genuine but it definitely feels like a coordinated social media campaign by the government.

These posts are made inorganically as most of these celebrities have never shared their political opinions before. All of the sudden they’re posting the same things on the same day. It’s extremely strange.

[1] https://twitter.com/layzhang/status/1161521747243520008?s=21 [2] https://pds.joins.com/news/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/201908... [3] https://m.imgur.com/6tIRGSJ

Because the news of the journalist got beaten up by the protesters went viral. There were more than 4 billion views on the related searches [1].

I will refrain from commenting on politics (don't have the time to contribute) but must say that I found both sides are incredibly biased against each other.

[1]: https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%23%E6%88%91%E4%B9%9F%E6%94%AF%E...

>Because the news of the journalist got beaten up by the protesters went viral

Given there's a history of the government using provocateurs. I'd take that with a grain of salt.

The "journalist" has no official record of him[1]. He also held a travel visa to Hong Kong and failed to show press pass on the scene[2].

It is wrong to do this to anyone and the protestor organized an apology session in HK airport the next day.[3]

[1]: (if you read chinese) http://cablenews.i-cable.com/ci/videopage/news/554875/%E5%8D... [2]: https://www.facebook.com/HKJA.official/posts/101572528984603... [3]: https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/order-returns-hong...

Re. [1,2] see [4], but I wouldn't expect it to convince you. Re. [3] I fail to see how an apology is an acceptable excuse for the protesters' behaviour, regardless of their cause.

[4]: https://weibo.com/1989660417/I2cCLyIGC?refer_flag=1001030103...

The protesters apologizing are presumably not the same whose behavior they're apologizing for. It just shows that the protest movement is not homogeneous and does not as a whole support indiscriminate violence.

> I fail to see how an apology is an acceptable excuse for the protesters' behaviour, regardless of their cause.

Presumably you think the same thing about the behaviour of the police. But they are lacking even an apology.

You don’t have time to comment, but you do have time to make this comment?

> [1]

In a strange time we live in, a red guard journalist gets a struggle session from pro-democracy activists in China's most freewheeling city

Seems not too different from our (US) celebrities posting the same political messages in unison. Like most of the Avengers cast and others. I've always wondered how scripted this is.

Reminds me of the recent matter of monopoly and coordinated messaging with Sinclair Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxtkvG1JnPk

The Sinclair video seemed creepy at first, but then again, these are literally paid TV announcers whose job consists of reading a script. One would expect the content to be scripted, and that's why I prefer indie people on YouTube over TV talking heads.

Support the original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWLjYJ4BzvI

Try to find about EU's INSTEX, financial vehicle to bypass US sanctions, in mainstream US media.

It's not strange, because we saw the protestors having done so many bad things and these are not reported out of china.

I wouldn't read too much about it. Especially in China where celebrities get into big trouble for voicing the wrong opinion. They probably posted it because their publishers and managers told them to do so to win some favors with the government.

Happens in America too, celebs today are one bad take away from being ‘canceled’

They arn’t being cancelled by the government. And they arn’t speaking out for fear of being disappeared by the government.

I don’t like the US government, but there is no equivalency with China.

Do you seriously think that celebrities are scared to say bad things about their government/president? And if they do, that there will be repercussions?

You can't be serious right?

Based on personal experience, there are in fact some Chinese that are surprised to learn Americans can criticize the president with no repercussions.

base on personal experience, Chinese can be surprised to learn Americans would criticized the president, but won't be surprised to learn Americans can criticize the president with no repercussions. Otherwise, Hollywood is doing a very bad job.

New account, no other posts, anonymous name, nothing to see here move along

also why are they using twitter its banned in china for censorship reasons

Presumably because the CCP cares about its foreign image. Tiananmen Square 2.0 might result in sanctions from other countries, but if they can paint it as "cracking down on troublemakers", they might be able to justify it.

A coordinated bot campaign is a bit hard to miss though. Now they just look pathetic.

It works

It worked for the last US presidential election.

https://twitter.com/search?q=%22I%20love%20China%F0%9F%87%A8...

Here you go. Not suspicious at all!

Edit: another gem full of bot accounts: https://twitter.com/search?q=%20what%20a%20shame%20for%20Hon...

No it’s not strange if you know what Really happened there. On Tuesday night at the HK airport, protesters surrounded two Chinese citizens from main land, searched their belongings, tied them up and beat them badly. It took a almost four hours for the paramedics to get the first guy out From the airport because the protesters tried to block them. The second guy is a journalist. He was calm and fearless when they tied him up. He said to the mob: I support Hongkong police , now you can beat me. Then the beating started. On his way out on a stretcher, he said I love Hongkong. The video has gone viral in Chinese Weibo, people are shocked and angry. And they are so moved by his courage. His words has been shared by countless people. A lot of celebrities has shared on their social media as well. The government does not ask them to do this.

The western media, however, only reported that the police clashed with protesters. So most people only knows a little about what happened that night.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3022838...

I can't believe this was downvoted. It's literally what happened.

they are genuine. most of my friends hold same view.

> “I don’t understand why my home had to be searched when I would be unconditionally released,” he said. Fong said officers did not take anything from his home.

I'm sure they were there not to take something, but to leave something.

They don't need to, the search itself is intimidation.

I believe OP meant in terms of planting listening devices, video cameras, spyware placed on computers, etc.

Or perhaps he was unconditionally released because they did not find anything during the search...

For a country that talks a good game about order and the rule of law they sure act a lot like a desperate and lawless dictatorship.

The police force is arguably dealing with the protesters as if they are the triads.

Which is deeply ironic in that the police force were the ones who are strongly suspected in collusion with the triads:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=16CiwPChpr0

And now sometimes the protesters are fighting the triads instead.

Not to undermine how serious the situation is and that these people are risking a lot by fighting for independence, but I wish we had fewer of these 'oh my god, people are getting death threats' headlines. Anyone and everyone get hate and threats for unpopular opinions online, it's not news.

In youth I lived in a place where organized crime was rooted. If it's true, as appear, that the government is behind that intimidation campaign, it's very sad to see a sovereign state to act like mobsters against students.

Heartbreaking and terrifying. I also recommend listening to yesterday's The Daily podcast on China's claimed release of Uighurs. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/podcasts/the-daily/china-...

It was a good one, and timely.

My thought listening to that podcast was that the Chinese government wouldn't expend this kind of effort and expense to silence people en masse unless they felt vulnerable.

authoritarian governments always feel vulnerable, the same way cheaters in relationships always feel a little insecure, and criminals are more likely to feel suspicious and guilty.

This is exceedingly off-topic so feel free to flag, but real question, I happened to be browsing the news and saw some very odd written characters in the large background here https://www.vox.com/2019/8/16/20807099/trump-tariffs-china-t...

This meeting is reportedly happening in shanghai, but those symbols look very vaguely like extremely ancient chinese and not remotely like anything modern. Can anyone explain them?

They're the earliest known form of Chinese writing, known as "oracle bone script".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script

Are these the "large character signs" which were widespread in the Cultural Revolution?

They need to get armed and take all police stations and government buildings. Otherwise it will fizzle out as more and more of them get arrested. With big China ready to move in, should be done quickly, in one night, so next China's steps would look like invasion.

Its reality, discussions won't work, and China is scared of another Tiananmen. Or, at least, take one policeman for everyone detained, and publicly swap them.

No one thought of reaching out to Facebook to see who this Lee is? Oh wait, Facebook can't be reached XD, and please see FAQ related to death threats lol

given how restrained the government response has been, given the protesters' violence and property damage, i doubt this was coordinated by either gov. other cleverer attritional responses like boycott and pressure on businesses sympathetic to protesters (eg. cathy pacific ceo was forced to resign today for not readily firing few pilots and employee participating in protests) is more likely way they will go, as ordinary people inevitably get tired of rather aimless protests.

A column of APCs and PLA heading into Shenzhen.. super restrained. I'm sure those protestors are so lucky to the CCP to not be Tiananmen Square 2.0...

Really?

Some of those protesters did beat up the guys from mainland included one reporter in the airport two days ago. [0]

Besides, a Japanese reporter had his camera broken by some of them. He was also told that they wanted to be portrayed as victims to gain sympathy. [1]

Last but not the least, some of the leaders of the protest is going to US/UK to study, I wonder what will happen when they leave.

You can go hate the gov't as usual, that's fine but be careful what you are signing up for.

We are in a multiverse of info wars.

[0] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3022782...

[1] https://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/-/66271

It should be noted that there are almost certainly agent provocateurs embedded within the protestors. It would be unlikely that the CCP wouldn't take this step given their other overt displays of force and seeming giddiness to make an example of the protestors that they wouldn't take the extra step to make the protestors look as bad as possible.

When some of those protesters broke into the legislative council of HK, threw China' flags into the ocean, swung US/UK flags, beat up random drivers on the street.

They don't need the CCP to make them look bad.

How do these actions look bad to you, apart from "beat up random drivers"? And where you see the news of beating up random driver?

Does this action look bad to you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdxXCTpHARQ&list=LLFo7VgFlg9...

It does. That's why a lot of Hong Kongers stopped him to do so.

That's a stretch, especially since it didn't happen in some isolated corner. They beat him up in front of a mass group of legitimate protesters who did not stop them. Even if the provocateurs are the ones who initiated the "legitimate" protesters are complicit too and probably joined in. I was in full support of the HK protesters, but not I'm worried they are turning into a dangerous mob.

I mean, what do you expect after 2 months of peaceful protests and no indication of any shift in policy?

I’m just quoting here, but this has seemed incredibly appropriate to these protests:

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

I think people overindex on this. It really isn’t surprising. People are protesting what they perceive as their government betraying them. That’s a huge claim and people are really angry. People are people. And angry people do angry things. If the government doesn’t cooperate with the people, they will get angrier and it will get worse. That is just what happens. The social contract takes both sides, and yes, it’s often random people who don’t deserve the fallout who get hurt as a result of not abiding by the social contract.

But it’s extremely myopic to think that protestors are the ones accountable for all the trouble. To people not immediately affected by the governments decision, it is far too easy to miss the fact that it’s the government throwing not just the first punch but many many more before you see this kind of thing happen

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