Beijing targets Taiwanese writer Lung Ying-tai as bad egg for supporting Hong Kong protesters
- Lung likens demonstrators to a small egg up against a wall of steel
- Communist Party mouthpiece says her thinking is scrambled
A prominent Taiwanese writer and democracy advocate has come under attack from mainland Chinese state media over her support for extradition bill protesters in Hong Kong.
In a commentary on Wednesday, People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, accused Lung Ying-tai, a cultural critic and Taiwan’s former culture minister, of turning a blind eye to “violent rioters” who strained the relationship between mainland China and Hong Kong, “exposing the narrowness of her thinking”.
“Everywhere, slogans that are tinted with Hong Kong independence can be heard,” it said.
“People are crazily blocking the airports and destroying subway facilities, even setting fire on the streets. Where is the egg? This is an iron hammer.”
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The commentary was referring to a Facebook post on Monday in which Lung compared the protesters in Hong Kong to a “small chicken’s egg” confronting a “wall of iron and steel”.
The commentary questioned why Lung “only saw the egg but not the fire bombs”, referring to petrol bombs thrown by protesters in increasingly violent clashes with anti-riot police.
Hong Kong’s nearly three months of protests – triggered in early June by a controversial extradition bill that was formally withdrawn on Wednesday – have emerged as the biggest challenge for Beijing since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square that ended in a bloody crackdown.
The Hong Kong demonstrations have proven to be a major test for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rule, with the party anxious to avoid any threats to its political legitimacy.
Beijing has accused “foreign forces”, including Taiwan, of meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs.
In her post, Lung said the demands of the Hong Kong protesters were aligned with the values of mainland Chinese people.
“Isn’t it so that the Chinese Communist Party’s core socialist values also include ‘freedom, equality, justice, and rule of law’, written in black and white?” she wrote.
“Are these values not ones that mainland Chinese people also want? The desire for fairness and justice, pursuit of a reasonable system, and demand for the people to participate in government – these are universal.”
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Lung said it would be “most unfortunate” if people in mainland China did not understand the reasons that drove the protesters onto the streets, and instead turned against their own compatriots to label them as rioters who seek “Hong Kong independence”.
“Today, Hong Kong people have torn apart their throats shouting; so many of their shouts carry the determination for sacrifice,” she wrote.
“You can say that they are shouting for the masses who cannot raise their voices. From a different perspective, mainland Chinese people can softly say something to those Hongkongers: ‘Thank you, please take care, may the green hills always be there.”
Returning to the egg comparison at the end of her post, Lung said: “There is an egg on the ground in the garden. How do we treat the egg? We bend down, gently pick it up, and hold it in our palm – we must take extra care not to break it.”
