New | Hong Kong protesters who mocked urinating mainland toddler branded ‘skinheads’ by state media
Global Times editorial slams protesters and urges ‘bravely pay them back’
Hongkongers who protested against a mainland family whose toddler urinated in a Mong Kok street were yesterday compared to "neo-Nazis" and "skinheads" in a scathing editorial carried by China's state-run Global Times.
The article came in response to a protest on Sunday, where some 30 Hongkongers mocked mainlaind tourists by squatting down and mimicking toddlers defecating, using fake faeces, at the Harbour City shopping centre in TST.
The piece is the latest in a spat that has drawn both widespread condemnation and support for the family both in Hong Kong and on the mainland, after pictures taken by passersby went viral of a toddler urinating by a roadside, leading to ugly scenes in the street.
Some netizens in the city believe the boy was actually defecating, claiming photos and videos showing the evidence.
"Humiliating mainlanders must be the only aim these protestors were trying to achieve. But it turns out that who they embarrassed and humiliated was nobody but themselves and all of Hong Kong society. Hong Kong's image was badly tarnished by them," read the editorial, posted on the paper's English language website.
"This handful of radicals in Hong Kong remind us of the rampant skinheads and neo-Nazis in Europe. Xenophobia is the cult of these groups. Their opinions have an effect on public opinion, but their actions will usually make trouble for mainstream society."