Hong Kong ‘chaos’ spurring on Catalan protests, Scottish independence movement, ex-Chinese envoy says
- ‘We can expect that other countries and cities may be struck by this deluge’ Wang Zhen says in commentary in Communist Party newspaper
- Such ‘tone-deaf narrative … might play well to a domestic nationalist audience’ but damages ‘China’s nascent efforts at building soft power across Asia’, academic says
Tensions in the region peaked last week following the sentencing of Catalan independence activists. In response, more than half a million people took to the streets of Barcelona, the region’s capital, according to police estimates.
Protest website Democratic Tsunami called for the closure of Barcelona airport, leading to dozens of flight cancellations, while clashes between police and protesters continued through the week and 17 people were arrested.
“This shows the disaster of ‘chaos in Hong Kong’ has already hit the Western world,” Wang said in reference to the situation in Spain. “We can expect that other countries and cities may be struck by this deluge.”
Beijing Daily is the official newspaper of the municipal Communist Party committee in Beijing.
Wang criticised the website for urging protesters to “study the experience of Hong Kong”.
The site, which gathered a large social media following after being created last month, was shut down by Spanish authorities on Friday.