Police facing invisible, dangerous enemies

It's much more than what you're allowed to see. Hong Kong's police force is heroically fighting both rioters and a complex and extremely dangerous international network aimed at destabilizing the People's Republic of China.

I've never seen such cynicism before and such a vulgar media setup as in Hong Kong. I'm talking in general, and also about what happened on Dec 22. Rioters, waving blue Uyghur, Taiwan, British and US flags, were shouting "independence" and "China is terrorist" slogans in the middle of the city, just two blocks from the International Finance Center, while the police stood by, peacefully, in full protective gear.

Journalists, real and fake, foreign and local, were there in full force, clearly setting the stage for the ugly confrontations ahead. I observed "media outlets" working, and I ended up photographing and filming their involvement.

The truth is that they were not reporting, not at all. They were participating, arranging things, provoking and manipulating actions.

All camera lenses, and all lenses of mobile phones, were pointed directly at the police, never at the rioters. Meanwhile, the rioters were shouting at the police, brutally insulting the men and women in uniform. This part was, of course, edited out, never shown in New York, Paris, Berlin and London. Often, such scenes are not even shown in Taipei or Hong Kong itself.

The "media" people were clearly advising the rioters what action to take and when, from which angle to throw things, from where to attack, and how to make things "effective".

The "media" people were clearly advising the rioters what action to take and when, from which angle to throw things, from where to attack, and how to make things "effective"

At one point, rioters started charging, throwing bottles and other objects at police officers.

Eventually, the police would have little choice but to react; they would begin moving against the rioters. And that is when all cameras would begin to roll. That was the moment to start "reporting".

As a professional, I could clearly imagine how the results of such twisted "coverage" would look like on television screens and on the front pages of Western newspapers: "An unprovoked, brutal police force charging at poor, peaceful, freedom-and democracy-loving protesters".

The insanity, madness of all this had no boundaries. Next to me, just 2 meters away, several members of the "press corps" were "helping each other from tear gas poisoning". They were frantically washing their faces with water, kneeling in the middle of the street, pretending they were sick. I felt no tear gas effects at first, and only after few minutes, I detected something very, very mild in the air. I photographed journalists, and then I photographed my own face, to show that my eyes were not affected.

It was all a great setup, perfectly polished, designed to manipulate public opinion in the West and in Hong Kong itself.

Of recent, I felt real combat tear gas in places like France, Chile, Bolivia and Colombia. That stuff breaks you in half, makes you fall to your knees, shout, fight for your life. In Hong Kong, the police force has been using the mildest gas I have ever detected anywhere in the world. But, police actions here have been described as "outrageous" by individuals such as Benedict Rogers, a so-called human rights activist and chairman of the UK-based non-governmental organization Hong Kong Watch.

As in the past, Mr Rogers has been calling Hong Kong Police Force actions, which are aimed at defending the city against the multinational hostile coalition, as "police brutality". Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor fired back, declaring that "Christmas in Hong Kong was ruined by protesters". The Hong Kong government said there had been arson and the police had been attacked with gasoline bombs.

During my recent work in Hong Kong, I realized the situation has been dramatically deteriorating, and the police force is now facing much greater challenges than it did in September and October. While the number of rioters is decreasing, those who remain on the streets, and in the underground cells, are much better organized, and better funded, particularly from abroad. Both the funding channels and propaganda support for the rioters are functioning professionally, and they are amazingly well-coordinated. The funding from the West is massive.

For Hong Kong and its police force, the situation is increasingly dangerous.

The external forces operating in Hong Kong are diverse and often very brutal. They include Taiwan right-wing organizations, Japanese religious sects, Western-backed Uyghurs, fascist Ukrainian militant groupings, as well as European and North American propagandists, posing as press corps. There are several Western anti-PRC NGOs stirring hatred toward Beijing, all around Hong Kong and the region.

The rioters themselves are more and more radicalized, now often resembling extremist Islamic groups in the Middle East. They are thoroughly brainwashed. Some are found to be using narcotics, including "ice", amphetamines and certain so-called "combat drugs", which have been already injected into places such as Syria and Yemen, by the West and its allies.

As a war correspondent who regularly works in such places as Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria (all these countries have been damaged and later destroyed by Western assaults or occupations), I am shocked to see the West using the same destabilizing strategies in Hong Kong - strategies which have been used in the Middle East and Central Asia.

It is obvious that the desire of Washington and others to harm China is too great, and will not stop, no matter what the price.

The hidden truth is that the Hong Kong Police Force is now facing a tremendous and extremely dangerous group of adversaries. It is not just a bunch of hooligans with black scarves covering their faces that are threatening the safety of the city and the entire People's Republic of China. Those are only a vanguard - what you are allowed to see. Behind them, there are complex and diverse international right-wing forces - political, religious and yes, terrorist.

At this moment, the heroic Hong Kong Police Force is the only thin blue line which separates the city from anarchy and, possibly, from imminent collapse.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.