HK influencer calls for understanding

Some Western politicians and media outlets are bound to be biased on China issues for political reasons, hence it is naive to believe in their rhetoric, a young Hong Kong influencer said.

Joephy Chan Wing-yan, a former Hong Kong district councilor and now an internet celebrity, called on the international community to learn and understand China through firsthand experience.

"They are bound to be unbalanced for ideological reasons, for political reasons. You'd better come to China and see it for yourselves," Chan said on Wednesday.

The remarks were made days after the United States announced sanctions on some senior officials of the Chinese central government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in light of the city's electoral system improvement.

The National People's Congress, China's top legislature, approved a decision at its annual meeting this month to improve the city's electoral system to guarantee "patriots administer Hong Kong".

Some Western politicians, including those from the US and the United Kingdom, said the move would undermine the city's democracy. Chan said such remarks demonstrated their attempts to "occupy the moral high ground to criticize China with attractive slogans".

She cited leaked recorded comments from British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, reported this month, as evidence for her view. At a meeting with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office staff, Raab said the UK will seek and maintain trade links with countries, including China, regardless of their human rights records.

"We see the irony," Chan said.

She also referred to the recent talks in Alaska between China and the US, during which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the rise of China disturbed the rules-based order.

"I find Mr Blinken's statements somewhat hilarious. It begs the question who sets the rules for the so-called rules-based order. The US, right? The US is both the referee and a player in the game. Then you ask how fair it is, and how fair the world is, how democratic the United States is? I think it's quite ironic for the United States to speak of a rules-based order," she said.

Chan delivered an online speech this month at the 46th session of the United Nation Human Rights Council to tell the world what she saw and experienced during several tough months in 2019.

Chan and her colleagues who expressed views against violence suffered physical and property threats when they ran in the 2019 district council elections as the city was rocked by street violence."But these experiences were seldom reported and mentioned by the West," she said.

"At the meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, I put great emphasis on the double standards and the biased perception of the Western media and partisans. The underlying intention of my speech was to call for fairness in the coverage of Hong Kong and in the perception of the rise of China."

That was also the main reason she decided to make short videos primarily related to political issues and post them online to provide people with the other side of the story. The YouTube channel where she uploads videos concerning Hong Kong politics has attracted almost 270,000 followers.

Chan said she hopes to extend her influence online and reach more young people.