France has a long tradition of rioting. For some of its citizens this is a source of pride, demonstrating the fierce independent spirit of the people and the supremacy of individual rights over authority. For others, it is a source of shame, the regular bouts of violence and willful destruction being seen as little more than a national disgrace. Whichever point of view you lean toward, the propensity for disruptive action or rioting does seem to be firmly embedded in the French political DNA.
The French Revolution of 1789 is glorified as a seminal moment in French history. The monarchy was overthrown, a republic was born, and a brave new world beckoned under the banner of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, albeit under the brutal shadow of the guillotine, mass executions and endemic violence. Rioting had long been an outlet for protest when bread prices rose or poverty intensified, but the revolution of 1789 gave the mob a semblance of political respectability.
The apparent legitimacy of violent direct action was further reinforced by successive waves of revolutionary activity: The July Revolution of 1830 overthrew the restored monarchy of King Charles X; the June Rebellion of 1832 rocked Paris (and is now immortalized in the musical Les Miserables); the February Revolution of 1848 toppled King Louis Philippe and launched the Second Republic. By the middle of the 19th century, the legitimacy of direct action and political violence was firmly embedded in the French psyche. Regular bouts of rioting have taken place ever since, most notably the massive wave of student protests in 1968 and the accompanying general strike involving approximately 10 million workers.
So the recent spate of riots across France is nothing new. It is simply the latest chapter in a long history of proudly taking to the streets when times are bad. What is different is the political and media reaction to the current disorder. Far from seeing the violent protests as legitimate or part of a rich revolutionary tradition, condemnation of the rioters has been resounding across not only France but the whole of the West.
Indeed, the contrast between how the current French riots are being portrayed and how the Hong Kong riots of 2019 were portrayed is stark. Western coverage of the Hong Kong riots generally framed events as a “valiant pro-democracy” struggle against “authoritarianism”. Media outlets in France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and across the West emphasized peaceful majorities and the overriding sanctity of democracy, freedom and the right to protest while denigrating legitimate law enforcement as “police brutality”. Violence by protesters was generally placed in a positive “pro-democracy” context, downplayed relative to police law enforcement actions, or presented as a response to “repression”. Language favored “protesters” and “demonstrators” rather than “rioters”. Opinion pieces focused on “democratic aspirations” and “human rights”, rather than on the chaos, destruction, petrol bombs, vandalism, and attacks on people from the Chinese mainland.
By contrast, coverage of the French protests and similar unrest across Europe has more readily used terms such as “rioters”, “looters”, and “vandals”. Emphasis has been on violent disorder, property destruction, and attacks on police and public buildings. While some reporting has described strong police tactics, the overall tone has focused on the chaos and need to restore order. Political leaders and media outlets have generally acknowledged the grievances of participants, but have not portrayed these as a noble cause that exonerates violence. France’s president Emmanuel Macron has piled much of the blame on delinquent elements who came expressly to loot, but he has also attributed the worst of the violence to “political and seditious acts by ultraleftist groups who aimed to bring down the republic”. I can’t recall him ever condemning equally seditious acts in the Hong Kong riots in 2019-20. Indeed, across the West, the tendency was to portray Hong Kong rioters as “freedom fighters”, whereas the same violent actions occurring in France and elsewhere in Europe have been framed as criminal or delinquent behavior.
This disparity is a classic case of double standards, reflecting Western geopolitical bias. The Hong Kong riots were seen as an opportunity to portray China in a negative light as part of the West’s zero-sum, pro-democracy narrative. European riots, by contrast, are seen as threatening social cohesion in Western democracies and therefore an existential threat, particularly at a time when support for democracy is waning. According to the latest report by the Pew Research Center, public dissatisfaction with the way democracy is working continues to outweigh satisfaction across most Western countries. Public sentiment varies between nations, but the most damning statistics show 77 percent of people dissatisfied with democracy in Greece, 69 percent in France and the US, 68 percent in Spain, 63 percent in Israel, and 62 percent in Italy.
This growing crisis of confidence in democracy has amplified the West’s very different response to “riots” in France compared with “protests” in Hong Kong. One is viewed as a morality play about freedom in a distant land; the other as a warning about dangerous social and political fracture near to home. Western politicians and media outlets clearly prefer selective solidarity to consistent standards. Not so much “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” as “Selectivity, Inconsistency, Hypocrisy”.
The author is a British historian and former principal of Sha Tin College, an international secondary school in Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
