○ While violence in Hong Kong was glorified and justified by many Westerners and Western media, foreigners living Hong Kong said they feel disgusted by the violence that targets people

○ Some foreigners said Western rhetorics only make things a lot worse because the rioters think they get support encouraging them to carry on with violence

Rioters leave a mess at the No.2 Bridge leading to the Chinese University of Hong Kong after they disrupted traffic around the campus in early November. Photo: Wang Wenwen/GT

In Western rhetoric, democracy and human rights matter above all. However, amid the six-month-long violent protests that have engulfed Hong Kong, many Westerners' view of the protests has changed. 

Hong Kong used to see an influx of expatriates from the US, Europe and Asian countries, making the city a diverse and tolerant society. 

But for many foreigners living in Hong Kong who view this place as home, when their lives were disrupted by growing violence and they were assaulted for holding different opinions, the city gives them mixed feelings.



Violence 'disgusting'

When Alun Wessler, a British teacher who has been living in Hong Kong for 15 years, was abused by a group of black-clad protesters outside an MTR station in early November simply because he told them he hated violence and he wanted to travel by MTR, he was disgusted and shocked.

"The abuse was just very un-Chinese and really impolite. I'm over 50 obviously and I think I deserve a little bit respect in Chinese culture and they got no civilization and no culture," said Wessler. 

Wessler called the various acts of protesters "disgraceful" as TV footage and online video clips show protesters setting an elderly man on fire, a cleaner being hit by a brick during clashes who later died, and rioters violently bullying mainland people.

He admitted that the social environment is tense now as some people in his school support the protesters and everybody has to be careful. Different from people in the West who call the rioters "democracy campaigners" and "freedom fighters," Wessler thinks they are "ridiculous."

"Such Western support will only make things a lot worse because the rioters think they get support that encourages them to carry on," Wessler told the Global Times.

People like Wessler view violent protesters as "rioters," and others see them as "terrorists," such as Sky Darmos who saw one in September making a speech to teach his fellows how to use fire to attack the police.

However, this German researcher from the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong was fired right away because of his opinion though the university claimed that he was only an external collaborator for a project.

Darmos told the Global Times that he has left Hong Kong and has no plan to come back.

Arthur Bauer from the US has been living in Hong Kong for 20 years. He now works as a senior executive in a global IT company.

His emotion against the rioters and the violence inflicted by them is even stronger. 

"I could never have imagined I would be witness to such lawlessness, such brutality, and inhumanity being inflicted by one group of human beings on another. The violence has been nothing but cowardly - mobs of young kids fuelled by the anonymity of their masks bludgeoning innocent old men who are proud people of Hong Kong who did nothing more than exercising the most basic freedoms allowed in Hong Kong - the right to express their opinion and question why these protesters are destroying their city, carrying foreign flags, disrupting traffic and brutalizing innocent people and terrorizing our society," lamented Bauer.

"Ironically these rioters are seeking a platform for the very things they are taking away from others with pure and unrestricted violence - the right to free speech. I cannot excuse this behavior and do not believe it can be excused. The mob violence, the anarchy and the lawlessness, that they are inflicting on what was one of the most free and open cities in the world, cannot be justified," Bauer added.

Bauer told the Global Times that most Westerners are turning a blind eye to the violence because it does not support the narrative they are trying to impose on the world. He said people he has met in his travels to North America are stunned by the mob violence on innocent people which they were previously ignorant of.

"Those people actively support the violence because it causes the disruption they seek in the pursuit of their broader political agenda," Bauer believed, adding that he once submitted to websites of US Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and 60 Minutes, an American news magazine and television program broadcast on the CBS television network, but stopped listening because of their biased pieces on the Hong Kong riots.

During a brief trip to Hong Kong, Cruz claimed that he did not see any violence from anti-government demonstrations.

Not only are the "mainstream" Westerners embattled by the current situation in Hong Kong, ethnic communities also walk on a tight rope.

Qurrat-ul-ain, a Pakistani part-time assistant at a district council office in Hong Kong, told the Global Times that she supports peaceful protests, but when the protests have become violent and her South Asian community was affected, she felt scared. 

In October, South Asians were alleged to be behind a bloody assault on a high-profile pan-democratic figure, dragging this community into the months-long chaos. Protesters on social media platforms also called for attacking South Asians and even attacking the mosques.

Hong Kong has a long-established South Asian population, accounting for 4 percent of the whole population in the city. 

Qurrat told the Global Times that there were several occasions when protesters caused traffic disruption and messes nearby her house, which made it hard for her to find a way out. She said she saw protesters breaking the traffic lights with hammers. 

"I feel sometimes the violence gets too much because it causes problems for everybody so it has to be limited and controlled," said Qurrat. "When we go out, we have to be really careful because right now there are even gangsters on the road and you don't know whom they want to attack."

Rioters throw bricks during a violent protest in Hong Kong in August. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

Stepping away

Not only have foreigners been affected by the prolonged protests, but foreign investments are also stepping away. 

According to official statistics released on November 1, the retail sector suffered a loss of 18.3 percent in September, an eighth consecutive month's decline. Luciano Santel, chief corporate and supply officer of Moncler SpA, an Italian apparel and lifestyle company, reportedly said in an analysts' phone meeting that the sales plummeted 40 percent in the third quarter and there was no sign for any turnaround. He also said the company has suspended investment in public relations in Hong Kong to protect its employees and cut expenditure. 

Kering SA, a French international luxury group, also reported a loss of 35 percent in the third quarter and sees a pessimistic prospect in the short term. The company has shifted some of its business in Hong Kong to other Asian markets including the Chinese mainland, South Korea and Singapore and the stocks originally designated to Hong Kong have been distributed to other areas.

The effect has also spanned to other sectors. Australia's Qantas airline has already cut its passenger capacity for Hong Kong by 7 percent and started using smaller planes.

Bauer's company is also among those having been affected in many ways. 

"Most of our internal conferences scheduled to be in Hong Kong have moved to other cities like Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai.  All business travellers to Hong Kong now need special approval because Hong Kong is now on a restricted travel list. Many key resources and expertise cancel trips out of fear so we are unable to get the resources needed to effectively conduct business. All our Hong Kong customers business was severely impacted with substantially scaled back investments," said Bauer.

But still, Bauer is hopeful. 

"Hong Kong will recover. Unfortunate but temporary phase," he said.

 

 
Newspaper headline: Riot-weary in HK