Angry Hong Kong Netizens Protest Against Democracy Party

In the New Year Protest of 2014, unlike past protests organised by Civil Human Rights Front, Hong Kong netizens went to the protest to protest against the Democracy Party.

Richard Tsoi, the secretary of Social for Community Organisation (SoCO, a group that actively helps new Mainland Chinese immigrants), the vice chairman of Democracy Party and Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement in China (HKASPDM), has just successfully assisted new Mainland Chinese immigrants who haven’t become permanent Hong Kong residents to get Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA).

Because of this, some furious Hong Kong netizens “crushed” the New Year Protest. They angrily shouted “Democracy Party Hong Kong traitor” and “Richard Tsoi Hong Kong traitor/Go to Hell”; and attempted to surround Richard Tsoi. In the end, Tsoi received the special treatment that other high-level government officials and pro-Beijing politicians had received – being escorted by the police to a taxi.

(Tsoi wears a red hoodie and a black t-shirt.)

Love the Country, Love the People: Social Welfare for Mainland Chinese

Last year, Hong Kong localists called for a boycott against HKASPDM’s June 4th night vigil as the ogranisation used the slogan “love the country, love the people“. At the same time, HKASPDM retaliated by asking Ding Zilin, the founder of Tiananmen Mothers, to attack the localists. However, Ding also criticised the nationalistic slogan and even revealed that HKASPDM called her “suffering from Stockholm Syndrome” as she rejected the request.

Slogan of Last Year’s June 4th Night Vigil: “Love the Country, Love the People, Hong Kong Spirit”

As Tsoi succeeded in helping new Mainland Chinese immigrants to get social welfare, netizens finally realise the real meaning of “love the country, love the people”.

Love the Country, Love the People, Help You Hand Out Your Belongings

Now we finally understand the underlying meaning of HKASPDM’s last year slogan “love the country, love the people, Hong Kong spirit”. This is the new interpretation of Hong Kong spirit by pro-China pan-democrats. “Hong Kong spirit” no long relates to the right wing’s tale, which is about how a hardworking person worked his way up, nor how people help each other in times of difficulty. Instead, “Hong Kong Spirit” is now crazy nationalism. Richard Choi and Ho Hei-wah (director of SoCO) etc benevolently hand out social welfare to Mainalnd Chinese, dissolve Hong Kong-China border, and create chaos in Hong Kong in the name of human rights

[…] “Love the country, love the people” means: Hongkongers work to death. Mainland Chinese have lots of ways to transform themselves to become “the vulnerable”. When they go to Hong Kong, they get all types of care instantly. Now, they’ve gotten CSSA. Next, they’ll get public housing. […]

[…] The backbone of the pan-democracy camp is a bunch of Chinese nationalists. They supported “Democratic Handover” and also spread lies about the future. In the end, there was only “Handover” and no “democracy”, which then became their excuse of using the slogan “continue to strive for democracy” […] Later, they even said crazily that Hong Kong had to export democracy to China. If China democratised, then Hong Kong would have real democracy.

The speech is great. However, they “democratise” China simply by holding June 4th night vigil and July 1st protest annually. Recently, absentee pan-democrats (those who hold foreign passports and whose families live in the West) like Martin Lee spread devious thinking like: we can tolerate smugglers and let them know how lovely democracy is, as if Hong Kong really had one. […] The votes Hongkongers cast, the money Hongkongers donated, the protests Hongkongers joined, all become political power of pro-China pan-democrats. As they obtained political power, they immediately do pro-China stuffs: distribute CSSA to Mainland Chinese, challenge the present rule and help Mainland Chinese to get public housing, give Hong Kong social welfare to Mainland Chinese upon their arrival.

Democracy Party in 2012 Anti-Japan Protest. Credit: VOA

Democracy Party: Serves the Mainland Chinese People

Blogger Lam Kay calls Democracy Party “China’s Democracy Party” because it only serves Mainland Chinese.

Lam Kay:

The second contradictory of the Democracy Party in 2012: Democracy Party said “Hong Kong residency isn’t under the scope of human rights” (during foreign domestic helpers’ Hong Kong residency lawsuit) — Democracy Party dissociated itself from the Civic Party (which provided legal help to foreign domestic helpers.) Where was Richard Tsoi? Where was Albert Ho’s double standard in justice? (Ho said it was justice that new Mainland Chinese immigrant can get social welfare one year after their entrance of Hong Kong.)

The third contradictory of the Democracy Party in 2014: Mainland Chinese non-permanent residents’ eligibility for social welfare is justice; reunion of Mainland Chinese family is an “international standard for civilisation”. Democracy Party, please answer me, why do applicants of non-Mainland Chinese family reunions require means test?

Conclusion: It is confirmed that Democracy Party is “China’s Democracy Party”. […] Mainland Chinese “residency in Hong Kong” is “international human rights”. Meanwhile, non-Mainland Chinese “residency in Hong Kong doesn’t belong to human rights issues”.

Total Schism in Pan-Democracy Camp: Pro-China versus Pro-Hong Kong

How will Hong Kong do in the new year? Lin Bao-hua (a scholar who lives in Taiwan)

[..] Hong Kong localism has arisen recently and a new chapter of Hong Kong democracy movement has begun. The “pan-Chinese nationalism” among the older generation restricts how hardline their approaches were when dealing with China; not being able to see the future, the younger generation becomes increasingly radical and Hong Kong autonomy movement arises. […] It is ironic that autonomy movement appears in Hong Kong, which claims to have “high degree of autonomy”.

Besides resenting that Mainland Chinese tourists and immigrants disrupt the existing order, cause inflation in housing and commodity prices; compete for resources like hospital beds and infant formula, Hongkongers also deeply resent that Mainland Chinese are backed up by Beijing to do so. For example, the approval of the daily 150 immigration quotas is controlled by the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security while Hong Kong government has no say. Therefore, younger people raise Dragon and Lion and Japanese flags, refer the Chinese rule as colonialism, and rank the rule of Chinese lower than that of the British and the Japanese. Some of them challenge the authority of the PLA Hong Kong garrison. Under the pressure of Beijing, the Hong Kong police finally arrested them.

Protesters wave the Union Jack, British Hong Kong flag, Taiwan Independence flag, and Japanese flag in front of  a PLA camp.

However, schism arises because of this. Some pan-democrats advocate compromising with Beijing, give social welfare to new Mainland Chinese immigrants, and accuse “Hongkongers first” as discrimination against Mainland Chinese. Such pan-democrats are called “left plastic” ; pan-democrats who advocate localism, putting Hongkonger first, and taking more hardline approaches against Beijing is called “right plastic”. However, “right plastic” also splits into the moderate and radical. The moderate don’t separate themselves from China completely while the radical advocates complete separation.

Social welfare for new immigrants is not a pure social welfare problem. Instead, it is a Hong Kong-China political problem. It can’t be understood with just humanity and human rights. If Hong Kong pan-democracy camp doesn’t get rid of its pan-Chinese nationalism, it will increasingly distance itself from the younger generation and also accelerate the Mainlandization of Hong Kong.

“Plastic”(膠 gāau) is originally a euphemism of the Cantonese obscenity “stupid dick” (鳩 gāu). “Left plastic” is a more common word while “right plastic” is usually used by the “left plastic” in retaliation.

The word “left plastic” even appears on the cover of Chip Tsao’s latest book “The Art of Swearing”.

The book cover says,

At the present time, Hong Kong has only two enemies. One is servile people who try to fathom Beijing’s words out; the other is “left plastic” who “tolerate Mainland Chinese bad culture”.