Chinese Foreign Ministry Compares Capital Hill Riots to Events in Hong Kong

BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th January, 2021) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Friday compared the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump to the events in Hong Kong, noting the difference in how those events are perceived.

Thousands of Trump supporters violently stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday in a bid to prevent Congress from certifying the presidential election results. The protesters attacked police with metal pipes and chemical irritants, damaged property, seized the inauguration stage and occupied the rotunda inside the Capitol building. The attack came after Trump urged his supporters to keep fighting to overturn the election results.

"Why is what happened in the US and Hong Kong under similar slogans perceived differently? Why do some react differently to these events? Why are the protesters in the US called insurrectionists, but once we are talking about Hong Kong, they are national heroes?" Hua said at a briefing, commenting on the reaction of Western countries to the arrest of 53 people in Hong Kong, accused of trying to topple local authorities.

The spokeswoman recalled that the White House press secretary said that what happened in Washington was not a peaceful assembly protected by the first amendment of the US constitution and condemned the rioters' actions.

Hua added that what happened in Washington was done by US citizens, while protests in Hong Kong were organized by outside forces.

From 2019-2020, Hong Kong experienced a series of protests against the city leadership as well as Beijing's rule, accompanied by violent clashes with the police and assaults on state facilities, including the Legislative Council. In late June, China adopted a law that adjusts security policies in Hong Kong to Beijing's perception of crime and punishment with regard to separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign countries. The critics of the law in China's special administrative region and abroad fear that it may limit Hong Kong's exclusive rights and freedoms. Meanwhile, China insists the law aims to punish illegal activities in the city without harming the fundamental freedoms of the local population.

Earlier in the week, media reported that more than 50 high-profile anti-Beijing activists and politicians, including US lawyer John Clancey, had been arrested on suspicion of plotting to force Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam to step down and paralyze the work of the regional government. The reports prompted the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union to voice their concerns over what has transpired.