Recent riots in Hong Kong are running rampant. Ringleaders of the rabble rousers are encouraging youngsters to take to the streets — with extremists storming buildings of the SAR’s administrative and legislative bodies. Their actions are disrupting Hong Kong’s law and order, affecting businesses, and seriously undermining the city’s economic and social conditions along with its international image. Interestingly, those who have incited these riots embrace an entirely different attitude toward their children’s political engagement.  

According to Ta Kung Pao, while different sectors of the society are strongly condemning violent behaviors, none of the children of the ringleaders, such as Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and Martin Lee Chu-ming, have ever taken to the streets, with most of them being shielded from any political involvement. Unlike the rioters, their offspring have been arranged to study, work and live peacefully in foreign countries. It is worth noting that the children of the three organizers of the “Occupy Central” movement were not allowed to participate in that illegal campaign in 2014. The double standards and ugly faces of these ringleaders are plain to see — they sent their children to safe places away from the political unrest while inciting other youngsters to resort to violence and become political cannon fodder.  

The double standards and ugly faces of these ringleaders are plain to see — they sent their children to safe places away from the political unrest while inciting other youngsters to resort to violence and become political cannon fodder 

Jimmy Lai certainly has many hideouts for himself and his seven family members. Besides his young son, the rest of them (including Lai himself, two sons and a daughter with his ex-wife, two sons and a daughter with his current wife) possess British passports and are living in the United States or the United Kingdom. Obviously, Lai has already planned his escape route and is always ready to flee. 

Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who is now serving his jail sentence, said in an open forum prior to the illegal “Occupy Central” movement that his whole family was engaged in discussing who was going to participate in the movement, and he asserted that he did not allow his young children to participate in the campaign. Like Tai, Reverend Chu Yiu-ming warned his son not to go to the frontlines. Not wanting to disobey his father, Chu’s son only sang hymns and prayed for his father in church on Sept 28, 2014, the date on which police fired tear gas to disperse protesters. 

Martin Lee’s only son, Joseph Lee, has studied in the UK since he was 12 years old. After his graduation, he followed in his father’s footsteps to become a barrister. He later became the son-in-law of an emerging cosmetics business guru. As Joseph Lee once claimed that he would never engage in politics, one wonders what he thinks about his father’s participation in the rally by legal professionals on June 7.

Tu Hai-ming, a Hong Kong member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, wrote that the children of these ringleaders are all from elite families who have left Hong Kong for a bright future overseas. They will not participate in any protests, nor will they be foolish enough to go to the frontlines. If they are prosecuted, their criminal records will be an indelible stigma that hinders their future development. The persistent chaos in Hong Kong can hardly affect them. If their fathers can benefit from the turmoil, they might still be able to inherit the associated wealth and “privilege” from them. They have never paid the slightest attention to the fate of the thugs terrorizing the streets. Apparently, the ringleaders know what they are doing is immoral, illegal and filthy, hence they forbid their children to participate in such activities. 

For more than a month, Hong Kong’s opposition and radical groups have been deliberately stirring up violence. They have resorted to means that deviate from peaceful demonstrations to distorting the facts and the truth. Ta Kung Pao commented in its editorial that it is hard to believe that beneath the masks of those armed thugs are innocent young people. In reality, it is not a battle for freedom, as evidenced by rioters charging the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR and defacing its national emblem on July 2; by the national flag being tossed into the sea outside a shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui and replaced by the Hong Kong separatist movement flag on Saturday; and by rioters repeatedly calling for Hong Kong independence. No matter what terms and slogans the separatists use, their movement is in essence secessionism which defies national sovereignty and tramples on the red line of “one country, two systems”. Their subversive campaign is carried out with the manipulation of foreign forces and must be severely reprimanded. 

Hong Kong can never restore its prosperity if the instigators are not brought to justice. We should realize that rioters will persist in the short run and the separatist movement shows no signs of abating. Masterminds such as Jimmy Lai, Anson Chan Fang On-sang and Martin Lee are secretly planning more disruptive operations to fulfill the political missions assigned by their US boss. As long as these culprits are still at large, Hong Kong can never have peace. 

This is translation of a Chinese article published on the website youth.cn.