Jimmy Lai criticized for supporting infamous activist
After days-long silence on the US unrest, Hong Kong riot leaders Jimmy Lai and Joshua Wong finally made their first public comments on the current crisis in the US.
However, their tricky comments, which revealed their embarrassment, faced criticism and their aim is to propagate an anti-government agenda, analysts said.
Lai reposted a video from notorious extreme right-winger Australian politician Avi (Avraham) Yemini on Twitter on Tuesday, in which the latter claimed that comparing Hong Kong protests and US protests is undermining the legitimacy of the former without mentioning that the Americans are protesting against racism.
Lai cited Yemini’s comment in his
Tuesday’s post: The riots in America are nothing like Hong Kong, and comparing the two is bloody disgraceful. And he said “@OzraeliAvi thank you for speaking for us #HKers,” which infuriated and disappointed many netizens, including his supporters.
“The pro-Trump billionaire financier of the Hong Kong insurgency, Jimmy Lai, is quoting a noted friend of Nazis to demonize antiracists in the US. This should say everything,” Net user Ben Norton tweeted.
Whatever these riot leaders say, they were just propagating an antigovernment secessionist agenda and used whatever sources available to serve that agenda, said Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University.
Lai’s siding with and flattering a notorious extreme right-wing politician shows his embarrassment and dead end in his anti-government secessionist agenda, Shen said, noting that he is actually indifferent to what African Americans are protesting against based on the video he reposted.
Wong also posted on Twitter Tuesday, saying that he stood with the ongoing movement in the US and opposed police brutality.
When Lai and Wong’s patron, the US, used an iron fist facing domestic protests escalating into riots, that put them in an embarrassing situation that they had to whitewash Western double standards on riots with ridiculous excuses, analysts said.