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| Localist protesters shout to pro-China demonstrators during an anti- China protest at Mongkok shopping district in Hong Kong, China July 11, 2015. Photo: Reuters |
HONG KONG — On a recent Sunday night in the district of Mong Kok, a group of young, radical activists swore through loud- hailers and gestured rudely as they denounced mainland Chinese as “prostitutes” and “barbarians”.
The youngsters are members of a new front in Hong Kong’s pro- democracy movement that is using increasingly aggressive tactics to demand an independent Hong Kong free from mainland China’s grip, shaking the assumption of a cosy accommodation between the mainland’s communists and the capitalist enclave.
Their separatist yearnings have alarmed Beijing and the pro- Beijing Hong Kong government, which are fighting back to win hearts and minds and forge a spirit of “love China, love Hong Kong” with multi-million-dollar information drives and
exchanges.
The animosity on display in Mong Kok was virtually unheard of until recently, despite resentment towards mainlanders flooding into Hong Kong. It follows unsuccessful protests to demand full
democracy in the city late last year.
“I never call myself Chinese at school because it is a shame to be Chinese,” said 16-year-old “Gorilla” Chan, who,
unbeknownst to his parents, founded a radical group with a 14 year-old friend.
In response to fears of a student-led separatist movement, the Hong Kong government has announced a record HK$124.5 million (S$21.9 million) to bolster civic education and youth
trips to the mainland.
In February, it earmarked another HK$205 million over three years for exchanges and internships, and said more than
19,000 youngsters would participate this year.
“Hong Kong students don’t have enough knowledge about the mainland. They will find that the mainland authorities are not as closed and conservative as they thought,” said the director- general of a mainland exchange organisation, in an interview with Reuters.
One young man who went to summer camp run by Hong Kong and the mainland authorities to build “national consciousness” said he felt caught between the two sides.
“It can be hard sometimes. A friend broke off relations with me because I didn’t want to join Occupy,” said Mr Thomas Chan, 20, referring to the pro-democracy movement.
Source : Today
Posted by Adebayo A J