Chinese general blames Hong Kong protests on 'bad parents' that are 'worse than Taiwan'

中國將軍指責香港抗議「比台灣還壞」

Chinese general says 'big mistake' promising nothing would change in Hong Kong after handover


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- As protests by hundreds of thousands in the streets of Hong Kong continue over a controversial extradition bill, a video has surfaced showing a Chinese general blaming parents for protests, that the territory's social foundation is "worse than Taiwan," and laments that it was a "big mistake" to promise to not change Hong Kong after the handover.

As tensions mount in Hong Kong over the proposed extradition bill, footage has surfaced of a speech given by Xu Yan (徐焰), general and professor at the Defense University of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the "2018 Annual Meeting of National Famous Teachers' Workshop Union" in Chengdu city, on Nov. 5, 2018. The 90-minute speech was given before 2,000 teachers, and elementary and junior high school students taking part in the conference.

Xu blamed the protests in Hong Kong on "bad parents" and an "education problem." He said that he studied the Hong Kong social structure in 1991 and he claimed that he found that "The social foundation of Hong Kong is the worst, even worse than Taiwan." He said that there is "not much anti-communism in Taiwan" as 80 percent "don't care about communists," while 20 percent are old army draftees.

He said that an analysis of Hong Kong's residents in 1997 showed that its population can be categorized into three groups. The first group are indigenous people and their descendants, who have received British education, but do not harbor resentment toward China.

The second group is "the worst" because they were those who were purged between 1949 and 1950 "after their properties were confiscated and we kicked them out. "Xu said many have a "bitter hatred against the CCP."

He said the third group consists of those who fled the famine from the Great Leap Forward. Xu conceded that this group probably does not have a good impression of China.

Xu claimed that the biggest mistake in taking over Hong Kong was that "nothing has changed." Xu said that because parents refused to change the textbooks based on the British educational system, it has led to "a problem with the education."

He said that it's not that the students are bad, but that "the parents are bad" for not accepting Communist Chinese textbooks. Xu said that young people now protest in Hong Kong because "they had a bad education."

The general claimed that a big lesson learned was when it came to the "one country, two systems" framework in Hong Kong, "two systems" was overemphasized and "one country" was neglected. Xu praised Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) for arresting Umbrella Movement protesters and changing the textbooks to those approved by Communist China.