Robert Chow – Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing firebrand
HONG KONG: Hong Kong is home to a host of democracy activists angering China but one rabblerouser – a silver-haired former radio host – has been embraced by Beijing for targeting supporters of a split from the mainland.
Straight-talking and a seasoned media operator, Robert Chow is Hong Kong’s most prominent proBeijing activist, best-known for orchestrating a public campaign against massive democracy protests in 2014.
Now Chow is back, and this time he is taking aim at Hong Kong’s movements for independence and self- determination as they increasingly rile Beijing.
His pro-Beijing campaign group, “Silent Majority”, was originally set up to oppose the 2014 Umbrella Movement rallies which it said destabilised the city.
Those rallies failed to achieve political reform and since then the once taboo notion of a complete break from Beijing for semiautonomous Hong Kong has gained support among young activists.
Chow, 66, says those activists are his new enemy.
“We are now ‘anti-Hong Kong separatists’ – we’ve made this our number one goal,” Chow told AFP.
Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” deal which protects its freedoms for 50 years, but there are growing concerns those liberties are disappearing.
The disappearance in 2015 of five Hong Kong booksellers known for publishing salacious titles about Beijing leaders triggered a wave of fear – all five men resurfaced on the mainland.
Attacks on journalists and interference from Chinese authorities in a range of spheres, from education to media, have also exacerbated anxiety.
Amnesty International Hong Kong last week said human rights in the territory are at their worst since the handover 20 years ago.
But Chow says that rather than discouraging freedom of expression, he wants to dispel political apathy.
“People don’t care! So you have to do something to arouse them and explain to them what the score is,” he said. — AFP