The Hipster ‘revolution’ in Hong Kong

German journalist Paul Ronzheimer is excited. Very, very excited. In mid-August he took a flight to Hong Kong. And he let the world know about his travel plans via the social networking service Twitter.

The global public can now follow his every step. On August 14, he told fellow twitteratis: “Just arrived in Hong Kong and saw this man with a US flag inside the airport. ‘This flag represents freedom and democracy, that’s why I show it. We are fighting for these values #Hongkongprotest’.”

And indeed there is a photo of a man covering his face while holding a US flag in his hands – wearing back gloves. Paul Ronzheimer had just landed in revolution paradise. On the same day, he posted scenes of other Hong Kong protesters waving US flags on Twitter.

German journalist Paul Ronzheimer: Who is he really working for? Youtube Screenshot

That is apparently what Ronzheimer had come for. Already on August 15 the German public – even those without Twitter – had to be informed about what Ronzheimer sees as a revolution. Germany’s largest tabloid newspaper, Bild, published a report with the headline: “New riots in the city, tear gas against protesters”.

Whenever violent rioters drape themselves in US flags, Paul Ronzheimer boards a plane to go and play the German cheer leader for that what he calls a “revolution”. He is a man on a mission, as deputy editor-in-chief of Bild, a newspaper published by Axel-Springer-Verlag, a notorious pro-American publishing house. Those planning to work for Axel Springer have to agree to the following “principles and values” of this particular publishing house:

1. We stand up for freedom, the rule of law, democracy and a united Europe.
2. We support the Jewish people and the right of existence of the State of Israel.
3. We demonstrate solidarity with the free values of the United States of America.
4. We uphold the principles of a free market economy and its social responsibility.
5. We reject political and religious extremism.

It is therefore no mystery that in 1952 the publishing house received 7 million USD from the CIA to enforce the pro-American stance in public opinion in the Western part of Germany. There are even rumors that some of Springer’s foreign correspondents work directly with Western intelligence services as well.

German journalist Udo Ulfkotte, who died in 2017, wrote a whole book about the cosy cooperation between Western intelligence and Western journalists. The principle of this cooperation is as easy as it is dangerous: The services give the journos guidelines on how to report on a certain issue, while the journos serve as informers for the services.

Judging by his behaviour, Paul Ronzheimer acts rather as an US operative and not an independent German journalist. In the Syrian war (2011-today) he immediately sided with the terrorist forces attacking the Syrian army. It didn’t take long either before he called for Western military strikes against President Assad and the Syrian Arab Army.

In the war in Eastern Ukraine (2014-today) he joined rallying cries for Western intervention in support of the Kiev regime against the separatist forces in Donbass.

And most recently, he has been focusing on Hong Kong, and paying particular attention to the anti-Chinese events taking place there. This time is it about introducing to his German audience to the “face of the revolution” which happens to be the 22-year-old student Joshua Wong. Ronzheimer characterizes Wong as a hero.

Joashua Wong: The ‘icon’ of the ‘revolution’. Photo: Wikimedia/西鐵頭等 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

“Joshua Wong was already fighting when he was 14 years old. He founded an activist group against the school subject “National and moral education” that was requested by China. Aged 16, he became world-famous in 2014. As the face of the Umbrella Revolution, he made it onto all cover pages. Since then, he has been beaten up several times, once together with his girlfriend. Twice he was arrested. He was recently imprisoned for 100 days and was only released in June.”

Ronzheimer continues his eulogy: “Every revolution, every uprising, needs a face. In Ukraine, in Maidan, it was former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko. In Venezuela, as the opponent of dictator Maduro, it was Juan Guaidó. And in Hong Kong, it is Joshua Wong. What they all have in common is that they are not afraid of prison and that they are facing the dangers.”

Klitschko, Guaidó… and now Wong? Bild’s man on the scene is clearly engaging in a serious myth-making communication strategy. The whole interview of Ronzheimer and Wong seems to be staged and orchestrated. It is as if Ronzheimer had come especially to ask Wong to openly criticise Berlin for their lack of support for the Hong Kong rioters.

And needless to say, Wong delivers: “To me, it looks as if the German parliament is very loyal towards Beijing. If Germany is part of the free world, why are we then left alone like this? What is happening in Hong Kong right now is what Berlin experienced in the fight for the freedom from an authoritarian regime.”

In the next days, an anti-Chinese media thunderstorm would hit the German and European audience. Ronzheimer and his colleagues hailed down comments, appearing as “experts” on TV news while demanding that Germany sanction China, blacklist Chinese businesses and freeze bank accounts owned by Chinese citizens.

European politicians who had wanted to warn against escalation with Hong Kong, asking “all sides” for agreements and talks were slandered as cowards and morally abject cynics.

In trying to manufacture the myth of the “young courageous leader of the revolution”, Ronzheimer and Bild have been following the typical colour revolution playbook. One important element of the playbook is the disinformation it invariably contains.

Who is Joshua Wong in reality? First of all: He is not Chinese, he is the privileged child of a Vietnamese father and a Cambodian mother who had arrived in the former British colony during the Vietnam war as “refugees”.

Chinese and local Hong Kong media and observers often point out that a considerable part of the so-called “protest movement” is filled with the ranks of refugees and their off-spring. Most of these refugees who came to Hong Kong during the British mandate, are driven by deep rooted anti-Communist and anti-Chinese sentiments, the extent of which could be seen in the weeks of protests: a show of American and British colonial flags were common among the rioters.

At the beginning of July, violent protesters stormed and occupied the local parliament building of Hong Kong, brandishing these colonial flags in the plenary hall.

The recent Hong Kong riots can be compared with Germany’s annual May 1 riots and the ethnic violent conflicts in France and Sweden. But there is at least one difference: Neither the Chinese, the Russian or even the US government are covering these riots in a sympathetic way or have called for supporting the “protesters”.

One can just imagine how Germany, France or Sweden would react to similar a provocation.

The Chinese government and Hong Kong law enforcement have remained on the sidelines as long the protests were held peacefully. But here is the problem for the organisers like Joshua Wong, and his backers from the US and the UK – and also for war-mongering journalists such as Paul Ronzheimer.

If nothing happens, then no political chess moves can be made. The protests thus became more violent, including provocations against law enforcement and ordinary Hong Kong citizens by blocking the traffic and even blocking Hong Kong International Airport for some time.

Also, the occupation of the Hong Kong parliament was an event to which law enforcement had to respond to re-establish order. The protest philosophy of the movement around Joshua Wong appears to be: No riots – no news.

At the same time, direct foreign interference has become more visible with each new protest day. Already in June, Wong fueled the conflict by openly thanking Taiwan for their support and stressed that lots of Taiwanese were joining his street protests. “Today’s Hong Kong, Tomorrow’s Taiwan. Thank you Taiwan. Let us face the suppression of Beijing’s Xi Jinping together. We will fight together.”

Regarding the conflict between mainland China and Taiwan – officially still part of the Chinese nation but driven by pro-Western forces to eventually declare its full independence from China – is more than just a provocation towards Beijing.

There are also plenty of reports about US diplomats meeting up with protest movement leaders. The Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao published a photograph it said showed Julie Eadeh of the US consulate’s political section talking with student leaders in the lobby of a luxury hotel. It appeared under the headline “Foreign Forces Intervene”.

There are many indications that a foreign insurgency is being supported in Hong Kong, taking advantage of anti-Chinese educated migrant youths as their stormtroopers.