Is Xinhua shifting focus of Hong Kong message to domestic audience?
Pictured: Carrie Lam, December 3 (Xinhua)
As far as I know, yesterday was the first time in the last six months that there were more stories about the Hong Kong protests and related events on Xinhua News Agency’s Chinese home page than on its English version:
English:
Chinese:
- Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥 Lín Zhèng Yuè’é): Hong Kong will cooperate and follow up with the requirements of the central government on foreign affairs in accordance with the law
- People’s Daily commentary: Relying on the motherland, Hong Kong will have a better tomorrow — bringing chaos to Hong Kong will not succeed
- Hundreds of people in Hong Kong rally to protest U.S. interference in the affairs of China’s Hong Kong
A sign that the government is, perhaps for the first time, worried more about domestic perceptions than the response abroad? Or coincidence?
Other news from the City of Protest:
A threat from Carrie Lam? The Hong Kong leader warned that Trump’s signature of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 “risks backfiring on more than 1,300 American firms based in the city,” according to the South China Morning Post.
“Hong Kong economist says Chinese bank forced him to quit over protests” is the headline of this Financial Times story (paywall):
A former chief economist of Bank of Communications, the Chinese state-owned bank, has alleged he was forced to resign because he was a Hong Konger, highlighting concerns of a purge in the city’s financial services industry following months of pro-democracy protests.
Also this from Bloomberg (porous paywall):
He said he was asked to leave the bank shortly after he shared with colleagues a link to an outside article critical of China’s firewalls and closed system. He was also asked to refrain from commenting on the Chinese economy, he said.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian parliament has unanimously approved a resolution “to ask the European Union to launch an investigation into the use of force by the police…support the EU’s initiative to demand the release of protesters…and request the reasons for preventing Joshua Wong from leaving Hong Kong,” according to Affaritaliani (in Italian).
This is only noteworthy because in recent months, Italy has been one of the few Western countries to make friendly noises about China’s Belt and Road and Huawei.
