Footage of a expat being arrested on his way home inside a Hong Kong subway station on the evening of Aug. 31 has gone viral amid piling allegations of police brutality during another restive weekend in the city rocked by protests.
In the aftermath, Chinese media has spread reports that the man is suspected of being a CIA “commander” in Hong Kong, in line with Chinese propaganda that the ongoing protests have been incited by “foreign forces.”
“What charge is this? Otherwise it is unlawful!” the man, wearing a T-shirt and cargo shorts shouted, shouted in one video as he is escorted away by riot police at Lai King subway station.
#HongKongPolice arresting a foreigner without telling him what charges he is arrested for. #NoPoliceBrutality #HongKongProtests #SOSHK WE NEED HELP NOW. #StandwithHK @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/QPxwnUyYGM
— Jolisa (@Jolisa_unicorn) August 31, 2019
“This is Hong Kong, this is not China!” he said in an earlier video while surrounded by at least five riot police.
“Tell me WHY?”
“I want to go that way!”
“This is Hong Kong, not China!” pic.twitter.com/bfkHzajkVr— antiELAB (@anti_elab) August 31, 2019
In that scene, those police officers manage to wrestle him to the ground as he repeatedly shouts, “Do you agree with the rule of law?” Police then appear to use a zip-lock tie to restrain his hands behind his back.
Footage of the incident and its lead-up captured by The Epoch Times appears to show that the man was arrested after he refused to use another exit from the platform as directed by police.
During the incident, police told an Epoch Times reporter at the scene, “We are investigating,” without providing further details.
The man has not been identified. In a video by The Epoch Times earlier in the night, the same man can be seen in a subway car speaking loudly to other passengers.
In that video, he said he has been living in Hong Kong for 24 years and was on his way back home, which is close to Lai King subway station.
“Why does Beijing want to hurt Hong Kong people,” the man said to other subway passengers. “Why does Beijing want to hurt you?”
The man also criticized the Chinese regime for not fulfilling its pledge of allowing Hong Kong autonomy under the framework known as “one country, two systems” when it reverted from British rule in 1997.
“Why do they [Beijing] want to take away what they promised? They promised a high degree of autonomy.”
Chinese Media Allege Man is Suspected CIA agent
Less than a day after the incident, reports have circulated on Chinese media that the man is suspected of being a CIA “commander” in Hong Kong.
Popular Chinese news portal NetEase, as well as several other Chinese outlets, re-reported a news video by Chinese self-media Prism News, which alleged that the man was a CIA agent whose Chinese name is Bao Weizhong.
#镜视频 据现场报道：美国中情局CIA香港指挥官，中文名叫包伟忠在香港机场被捕，其证件也被一同曝光。 pic.twitter.com/DVxp9rlRGr
— 棱镜新闻PRISM News (@PressPRISM) September 1, 2019
The news video appears to attribute to the information to a social media post made by a Chinese netizen.
The video also shows an image of a card which says “Press” and “Sveriges Radio” at the top, with a photo of the cardholder who is named as Martin Svenningsen. Sveriges Radio is Sweden’s public radio broadcaster.
Svenningsen could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Chinese regime has launched an extensive social media disinformation campaign against the protesters in Hong Kong, including running narratives that the protests are the work of “terrorists,” fomented by Western powers and “radical forces.”
Recently, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube suspended hundreds of accounts linked to a Chinese regime-backed information operation seeking to undermine the protest movement in Hong Kong.
From The Epoch Times
