It has all been evolving in accordance with the script penned in Washington, London, and other Western capitals: Pro-Western militants were first identified, then recruited. Riots were financed and supported; society, at least to some extent, destabilized. When the government could not just stand by and watch, when it finally acted, the Western media went into overdrive, attacking it ferociously for “violating rights” and for “acting undemocratically”.

This is nothing new, really. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of governments have already been overthrown, all over the world, with the help of this “libretto”.

It is always done “in the name of freedom and democracy”, at least on paper. In reality, the burlesque and cheap tragi-comedy is performed for one and the only reason: to keep power in the hands of Western governments. It goes without saying that the West never really cared about the lives of non-Westerners. In virtually all parts of the world, including China, the lives of “the others” have been continuously sacrificed for the mercantile and other pragmatic interests of Western empires.

Hong Kong is no exception. And it takes great discipline not to see and understand it.

All that has been done in 2019 and 2020 is to harm the most populous and greatly successful socialist country — China. And the reason why China is, among a few other nations on earth, singled out for smearing and continuous attacks, is because it has managed to develop and implement a much more prosperous political, economic and, above all, social system than the West. It puts its people first, and it is relentlessly searching for novel concepts that bring benefits to its population of 1.4 billion, and to the entire world.

The more successful China gets, the more endangered Western regimes become.

The West has clearly failed its people, and instead of fighting the virus, resorted to ugly propaganda and the cheapest imaginable disinformation tricks, snapping at China

Washington, London and others have already tried to infiltrate the Chinese mainland with propaganda, with countless hostile NGOs and an entire army of “academics” and journalists. But they have squarely and patently failed. Subversions and interference in China’s domestic affairs have been detected, confronted and finally stopped.

Hong Kong was identified as the “soft spot” or “Achilles’ heel”.

The West has thrown tremendous resources into the territory, first in 2014, during the so-called “umbrella revolution”, and later in 2019. On both occasions, it recruited mostly radical young people who have been frustrated with the fundamentalist capitalism and prohibitive cost of living. Highly professional Western propagandists made sure of totally twisting the reality, directing the wrath of some uninformed and unsatisfied people toward Beijing.

But even this approach and strategy, which has been so “successful” in countless countries worldwide, has failed again.

With great determination, China (including Hong Kong), defeated COVID-19, all over its vast territory, while the West has clearly failed its people, and instead of fighting the virus, resorted to ugly propaganda and the cheapest imaginable disinformation tricks, snapping at China.

But the West has never really given up: Hong Kong, until now is still designated as the place to be destabilized.

This is how Reuters began its report, reprinted by The Globe and Mail, and many other publications, on Sunday:

“Suppressing Hong Kong’s democracy movement is a priority for China, even in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, a top pro-democracy leader said on Sunday, a day after police arrested him and 14 others in a surprise crackdown.”

“The United States and others criticized the arrest of the 15 on charges of organizing and participating in anti-government protests last year, the biggest crackdown on the pro-democracy movement since the outbreak of the protests almost a year ago.”

“‘This is all happening while we are in midst of a pandemic’, pro-democracy activist Avery Ng told Reuters by telephone.”

This is how propaganda works. Instead of reporting the news first, or quoting official Chinese or Hong Kong sources, as would be the case if the arrests, including of dissidents like Julian Assange, took place in London or New York, Reuters opens its piece with some quote from a militant. Not only is this bad journalism, but it goes against all norms of “objective” reporting.

But all gloves are obviously off, and reporters seem to be paid not just by the number of words they produce, but by how much they succeed in smearing China.

The proposed Hong Kong extradition bill (from 2019), the target of those protesters, has never clearly been explained to anybody by the Western mass media.

The 15 people who were arrested on Saturday actually broke the laws of Hong Kong, interfered in the due legislative process of their own city, and helped to ignite violence that threw their amazing city onto its knees. All this was done under the British and colonial flags, and under the banners of the United States. All this, while the US national anthem was blasted from the portable speakers of rioters. Public property was destroyed and people were injured, with one man killed. The Hong Kong police, which reacted in an extremely restrained, mild manner, was shamelessly smeared by countless Western media outlets. I witnessed this violence, reported on it, and documented it.

As was noted above, the script has already damaged countless countries. But it is an old script. And it no longer inspires almost anyone, except those ultra-right interests in the old and new imperialist countries of the West.

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. He is the author of 20 books including“China’s Belt and Road Initiative”, and “China and Ecological Civilization".

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.