Ongoing demonstrations in Hong Kong against now-suspended extradition rules and aggressive policing of earlier protests have sparked additional rallies by Hong Kongers and foreign supporters overseas. These in turn have been met with counterprotests by overseas students and others from the mainland, backed by vocally supportive Chinese consular officials.

The latest round of confrontations took place in Australia on Friday. The Age’s Zach Hope described the largest such incident, outside the State Library in Melbourne:

Police appeared to be caught unaware by the scale of the protest and only intervened when pro-Chinese demonstrators surged towards the pro-Hong Kong side. By this time, scuffles had been breaking out for about 40 minutes. […] The number of pro-Chinese protesters surged throughout the evening and eventually outnumbered, and out-voiced, the pro-Hong Kong side. […] On the library side, they sang their national anthem, chanted in Mandarin and English for “one China” and let the protesters know they were “rubbish” and that “China is great”. […] Under the gaze of the statue of Sir Redmond Barry, Hong Kong protesters gathered on the north side of the library lawn, singing and chanting “free Hong Kong”. A pro-China demonstrator yelled out “if you don’t like it, leave the country.” Another yelled back “we’re in Australia.” [Source]

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that its crew were attacked by one pro-China counterprotester, and described other events around the country:

An ABC Television crew was attacked by one man who pushed a speaker on them. […] Meanwhile in Adelaide, between up to 80 pro-Hong Kong protesters visited the city campus of the University of South Australia on Friday afternoon. The protest became quite heated when more than 100 pro-Chinese demonstrators arrived, one of them claiming a pro-Hong Kong protester had put a hand on a female member of their group. Many supporters of China yelled, booed and hurled derogatory and sexist insults at the leaders of the pro-democracy movement as they spoke against Hong Kong’s controversial extradition treaty and police brutality […] The pro-Hong Kong protesters made it clear to their group that they did not want anyone leaving alone, because of fears pro-Chinese protesters would follow them home and threaten violence. [Source]

The guy is standing all over the girl in mask. He has left a chilling remark to the girl, “You only deserve whatever freedom we give you.” #Melbourne #antiELAB pic.twitter.com/39gMCjAcxy — オトヤの天誅 | ??????? (@OtoyaNoTenchu) August 16, 2019

Outside State Library of Melbourne, protestors in support of Hong Kong appear heavily outnumbered by loud pro-China counter-protestors, mostly young. Some I ask have come after seeing footage on WeChat. Now seperated by police, shouting slurs and singing patriotic songs. pic.twitter.com/jjKoK1VGhb — Ross Richardson (@ooobo) August 16, 2019

I left long ago but a few more pics. Neither side keen to leave around 8.45pm but police doing well to seperate both after initial scuffles. Many onlookers and tram passengers likely confused. pic.twitter.com/NQIE9nAD6H — Ross Richardson (@ooobo) August 16, 2019

This is Melbourne tonight.

but this Melbourne is not city i want to live in.

After escaping and fleeing helf of the planet to Australia，It is so sad and frustrated for me to end up in another red hell.

Scary time，no safe place for awakening Chinese. @cityofmelbourne pic.twitter.com/60vd5ADbNz — 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) August 16, 2019

After short communication, Chinese shouted 汉奸, traitors to the Han Ethnicity, together onto Hong Kong protesters. pic.twitter.com/tQDOdymoGl — lebao wu?? (@MerlotN) August 16, 2019

For the record, this was a pro-#HongKong democracy rally which was gate crashed by the "One-China" camp. However on #Wechat this news is being spread as pro-HK people gate crashing the-pro china rally. pic.twitter.com/E6KSk5vTDE — Maree Ma (@maree_jun) August 16, 2019

is this the Melbourne we want？A Melbourne fully packed with China nationalists shouting Chinese anthem in Friday night and cheered by China‘s national propaganda machine as a role model city for defending China communist party's interest？@cityofmelbourne @ScottMorrisonMP https://t.co/DngcCvnmCB — 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) August 16, 2019

The Melbourne protest last night is getting huge play in China’s state media – minus the ugly slanging matches and biffo. Headline says ‘Chinese students surround ‘HK separatists’, sing nat anthem. Big focus too on patriots protecting the flag from rain: https://t.co/Ni2cyRZxd4 pic.twitter.com/7liW3x2qRS — Bill Birtles (@billbirtles) August 17, 2019

I think it is quite safe to assume that Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin @HuXijin_GT will not be registering outrage at the assault on ABC Australia journalists in Melbourne by totally uncivil counter-protester. https://t.co/NAfU13YJgS pic.twitter.com/JEywMAJIO7 — China Media Project (@cnmediaproject) August 16, 2019

(China Media Project’s tweet refers to protesters’ assault of Fu Guohao, a reporter for the state-owned nationalist tabloid, at Hong Kong airport on Tuesday.)

The antagonism was not entirely one-sided, however:

I support the pro-Hong Kong rallies. But if you're not aware of this kind of stuff – and I think the Australian media is mostly incapable of picking it up – you're not getting the full picture of the dynamics at these events. https://t.co/Zlt8oOgyfk — David Brophy (@Dave_Brophy) August 17, 2019

A pro-China rally in Sydney was also held on Saturday. A fake permit letter for a similar event in Melbourne was circulated in Chinese-language Australian media earlier this week. From the Sydney event:

I'm all for protecting people's rights to express themselves (even if they happen to be narrow-hearted nationalists) but ffs, do they honestly think this is going to help their cause? Is mainstream Australia going to look favourably on such blatant nationalism? https://t.co/8nxxfXkScu — Adam Ni (@adam_ni) August 17, 2019

Whoa this. “If HKers don’t love HK, gtfo! If you don’t love China, you’re our enemy! Isolate them! Get the fuck out!” And crowd cheers and someone goes “HK separatists are cunts!” pic.twitter.com/8r29Ez7Oh1 — Vicky Xiuzhong Xu (@xu_xiuzhong) August 17, 2019

No evidence so far that this is back by Chinese authorities. And many seem to be genuinely patriotic here. But here is another old friend, “if you are a separatist, I wish death upon your father” – I’ve seen him before at a 2017 rally that WAS organized by the Chinese consulate pic.twitter.com/IACSmKKDxD — Vicky Xiuzhong Xu (@xu_xiuzhong) August 17, 2019

Such disparity from the truth causes Chinese individuals and Australians to think the entire Chinese community supports these actions, when this rally is obviously organised by hardline nationalists. 2/2 — Maree Ma (@maree_jun) August 17, 2019

Macquarie University’s Kevin Carrico witnessed initially calm dialogue between Hong Kong and mainland students at another event at Monash University near Melbourne on August 6. Another group of mainland students later arrived, however, bringing “harassment and intimidation [which] laid bare the fundamental (and fundamentally flawed) logics of contemporary Chinese authoritarian nationalism on the global stage.” From Foreign Policy:

[…] Despite being the aggressors in this case, invading protesters’ personal space and menacingly shouting people down, the patriots perpetually framed themselves as victims. [… A]ccusations and pre-emptive self-victimization in turn provided cover for such blatantly threatening comments from the Chinese students as “We Chinese just want Hong Kong’s land, we don’t care about the people” and “We’ll upload video of this to Weibo, then see if you all are still alive tomorrow.” […] “We are all Chinese” is not a statement of solidarity but rather a threat to embrace a particular ideological line based not in reason but in imposed identity. While the Hong Kong students were the main targets for harassment, particularly venomous hatred was reserved for fellow Chinese who failed to adopt a suitably hostile stance. In a moment that highlighted the troubling intersection of authoritarian nationalism and sexism, one student from the province of Sichuan who was speaking with protesters rather than yelling at them was shouted down as a “Sichuan sister” who “needs to be reported to the consulate.” The assembled group of patriots laughed as this student shook her head and stared down at the ground. Images of this student continue to circulate on Chinese social media today, with threats to report her to the authorities “in every province.” When discussing such unabashed nationalist thuggery, I am often asked whether I think the students were taking orders from the Chinese Consulate. Beijing has played a role in mobilizing student protesters abroad before, most notoriously in 2008. And its embassies in both Australia and New Zealand have in recent weeks voiced their support in Chinese-language postings for violent acts against peaceful protesters—I am certainly not about to give them the benefit of the doubt. Yet the assumption that such ignorant behavior is directly dictated by the consulate is not always correct. Sometimes it’s a comforting story that we tell ourselves to avoid reckoning with the real, violent nationalism enacted by some Chinese students. [Source]

Carrico went on to discuss appropriate responses by universities to actions such as threatening to or actually reporting fellow students to home-country authorities for their political views. Regarding consular involvement, he cited a May article from The Atlantic by Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian and Zach Dorfman on Beijing’s orchestration of patriotic demonstrations along the route of the 2008 Olympic Torch relay:

These operations weren’t unique to San Francisco. Chinese embassies and consulates elsewhere are known to have bused in thousands of students from surrounding areas to participate in counterdemonstrations in London, Canberra, Paris, Nagano, and elsewhere, often providing signs and flags, helping them drown out pro-Tibetan or other groups. The South Korean government launched an investigation after well-equipped crowds of Chinese students appeared in Seoul, where they pelted anti-China activists with rocks in videos that went viral on YouTube—violence that a Chinese foreign-ministry spokesperson refused to condemn. Zhang Rongan, the head of a Chinese student organization in Australia known for close ties to Beijing, initially claimed that the Chinese embassy had provided support to help bring students from all over Australia to the relay. (Zhang later denied that the students had received any outside support.) In his book, Qiaowu: Extra-Territorial Policies for the Overseas Chinese, the researcher James Jiann Hua To writes that Chinese students were also warned not to participate in any anti-China activity. […] The global Chinese activism surrounding the relay was not just an expression of spontaneous national ardor, […] but also of the growing assertiveness of the Chinese security state. The demonstrations were far larger, better organized, and more ideologically uniform than they would have been without official direction. That Western observers were left discussing how dearly the Chinese people loved their country, rather than the scope and coercive reach of their government’s power, indicates how successful this influence campaign was. [Source]

Author and former China correspondent Louisa Lim, now based at the University of Melbourne’s Center for Advancing Journalism, discussed the current “mobilization” of overseas Chinese communities in a New York Times op-ed on Tuesday:

Chinese people living or studying overseas are [an] important audience for Beijing’s messaging. Their primary news diet is largely delivered via WeChat, a Chinese chat app where messages are subject to censorship, so they often still fall within Beijing’s propaganda orbit. Recent pictures of an American diplomat meeting two activists, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law, were used to bolster Beijing’s claims of hostile foreign forces backing the protests. On Tuesday, scenes of a Chinese state media worker being tied up at the airport and beaten by young protesters flooded Chinese social media, bolstering calls for Beijing to intervene militarily in Hong Kong. Such messaging helps to mobilize Chinese communities, especially newly arrived migrants in Australia, Canada, the United States and elsewhere, to support the official line from Beijing. One website for a planned protest this weekend in Sydney asks Chinese to stand together against “rioting” in Hong Kong, which it said was causing discrimination against Chinese in Australia. The battle over Hong Kong is, in effect, being exported, pitting overseas Chinese communities against each other. Over the past few weeks, “Lennon Walls,” covered in colorful Post-it notes expressing support for Hong Kong, have been torn down by supporters of Beijing from Auckland, New Zealand, to Vancouver, British Columbia, and from Hobart, Australia, to Harvard Square. After a violent tussle between pro-China and pro-Hong Kong students in late July at the University of Queensland in Australia, the Chinese consul-general in Brisbane, Xu Jie, issued a statement praising the “spontaneous patriotic behavior of Chinese students.” [Source]

ABC7’s Liz Kreutz reported on the ongoing battle over a Lennon Wall at UC Berkeley on Tuesday:

One of the Cal students who is behind the wall, and believes the Chinese government is encroaching on Hong Kong’s autonomy, says everyday students tear down the posts and she goes back and puts the notes back up. “Why I’m here is to let the international world know and raise awareness for people who don’t know what’s happening in Hong Kong.” The student, who wears a mask and asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution by the Chinese government said, “And let them know what is the case of the police brutality happening in Hong Kong.” As she was posting new flyers criticizing the Chinese government on Tuesday afternoon, a swam of Chinese students confronted her saying they disagree. “Hong Kong is a part of China, it’s absolutely true,” Xiu Ming Hung, a Cal student from China, said. “And these people they use violence to beat the Hong Kong police.” [Source]

Similar activities by mainland Chinese have appeared online, as Quartz’s Jane Li reported late last month:

On Monday (July 22) night, hundreds of Chinese internet users flooded Facebook pages of two Hong Kong organizations— the Civil Human Rights Front, a major organizer of some of the city’s massive protests against an extradition bill that is now suspended, the Hong Kong National Front, a local political party—with thousands of comments. The organizer of the attack, Di Ba, announced (in Chinese) on social media platform Weibo that the aim of the campaign is to “support Hong Kong police and condemn some of the Hong Kong rioters for insulting the Chinese emblem.” […] Consisting mainly of Chinese people living overseas, as well as Chinese university students, Di Ba spun off from a fan page for a Chinese footballer on an internet forum called Tieba. It remains a secretive but highly organized group that reportedly has 20 million users across social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Weibo. As it did ahead of past attacks, the group announced on Weibo when it would launch this week’s attacks, and distributed customized emojis and slogans for the participants to use. These emojis are usually “reaction images” with trolling text on them, such as the one below. […] While the group denies having a relationship with the government, it has largely targeted people or organization not in line with Beijing’s official stance on political issues—jumping the firewall in April to troll pro-Uighur groups, for example. It has been lauded by state media People’s Daily. [Source]

Meanwhile, English-language state media are increasingly pushing similarly anti-protester and pro-police narratives abroad. From Simone McCarthy at South China Morning Post:

Some of the coverage by the international arms of Chinese state media – promoted largely through videos posted on major social media platforms – marks a significant shift in tone and content as they seek to push the message that foreign influences are at work and play up violent incidents. Over the past decade the central government has spent an estimated US$6.6 billion expanding its international media presence as part of its efforts to make its voice heard abroad. “The Chinese government has invested so much, and it’s just for these kinds of moments,” said Clayton Dube, director of the University of Southern California US-China Institute. “They don’t want the situation in Hong Kong to be defined exclusively by [Western] news organisations. […] “This is some of the most direct coverage we’ve seen in terms of trying to counter a narrative,” said Sarah Cook, director of the China Media Bulletin, published by Freedom House, a democracy watchdog which is partially funded by the US government. […] Cook said such coverage “shows what they can do when they want to” and that while state media may have used a “bunch of fluff” to help build its international audience, when they “feel like they need it” the tone will shift. [Source]

A selection of state media Twitter posts can be found below. Twitter has attracted some criticism for allowing the use of its ad system to extend their reach:

Another promoted propaganda tweet in my feed attacking the #HongKongProtests, thanks to Twitter's willingness to take money from anyone. pic.twitter.com/tN67WMk0pZ — Pinboard (@Pinboard) August 16, 2019

If you work at Twitter, please take a minute to look at the #HongKongProtests tag, and ask yourself if you want to explain to your kids that you helped to suppress this movement. @jack won’t lift a finger. But if Hong Kong youth can stand up to China, you can stand up to @jack! — Pinboard (@Pinboard) August 16, 2019

This ad was bought by the same group that is referring to the protesters as literal cockroaches. Does @twitter have no standards whatsoever around who can buy ads? https://t.co/tRKJD7TVtN — Pinboard (@Pinboard) August 16, 2019

Pinboard founder Maciej Cegłowski has been in Hong Kong, documenting his experiences of the protests on Twitter and in a highly recommended blog post.

Foreign Policy editor James Palmer, formerly at Global Times, commented on the likely effectiveness of China’s external propaganda on Hong Kong:

One thing Hong Kong is bringing up is the deep division between the striking effectiveness of CCP propaganda at home and its general ineffectiveness and weakness abroad. — James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) August 12, 2019

A decade ago, you might have got a subtler, more effective line from the professional Beijing apologists – that the HK protestors were children, trouble-makers, if only they were more reasonable concessions could be made. Impossible to sustain that nowadays. — James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) August 12, 2019

But a decade ago there would also have been a degree of genuine debate online on the mainland about the protests (as well as widespread censorship efforts) and mainlanders who support the protestors would have felt much less terrified of speaking up, at least online. — James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) August 12, 2019

Even five years ago, Global Times coverage of the Umbrella Movement was far more subtle than the coverage today. (I know, I was working there) — James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) August 12, 2019

Below are examples of official media messaging on Twitter:

All rise for #HongKong police! The police delegate from Hong Kong, China, received overwhelming applause when they entered the stadium at the opening ceremony of World Police and Fire Games in SW China's Chengdu pic.twitter.com/nAehvgCByT — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) August 9, 2019

Is there a black hand behind the chaos and violence in #HongKong? https://t.co/0Z3OlRHMuo pic.twitter.com/8df3moLd6c — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) August 9, 2019

Numbers don't lie: Declining criminal cases in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and its rising rankings in different indexes show the feats of HK police after it returned back to motherland. pic.twitter.com/yflqAx7B47 — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) August 9, 2019

A protester fires a US-made M320 grenade launcher at an illegal assembly in Tsim Sha Tsui amid escalating violence in Hong Kong on Sunday night. pic.twitter.com/NJj42ustw9 — China Daily (@ChinaDaily) August 11, 2019

The mob! Angry, uncontrolled, aroused to unreasoning violence, they are a threat to life and property wherever they occur. As seen in this video, in other places where riots ran amok, the police responses were much stronger.#HongKong pic.twitter.com/rwT5vXD2ae — China Daily (@ChinaDaily) August 14, 2019



https://twitter.com/ChinaDaily/status/1161529827213623296

A journalist from the mainland was beaten up by radical protesters at the airport in Hong Kong pic.twitter.com/FNM2iu5mi5 — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 14, 2019

Some Western media have repeatedly turned a blind eye to the violent and illegal acts perpetrated by radical protesters in Hong Kong. It's time that they get rid of bias and show the world what's really going on in Hong Kong. Read the opinion piece: https://t.co/aZQCfdy2VM pic.twitter.com/Qy8ht7B7J3 — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 15, 2019

“We just want Hong Kong to be peaceful.” Hong Kong's silent majority raised their voices against violence. #HongKong pic.twitter.com/HVrkEZHA47 — China Daily (@ChinaDaily) August 16, 2019

What a shame that Chinese-American actress Liu Yifei is being attacked for her support for #HongKong police https://t.co/78bOmERsbe pic.twitter.com/wMZv888MiY — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) August 16, 2019

Who is the public enemy? (China Daily) pic.twitter.com/M3uaXElBSB — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) August 16, 2019