A banner with the words "Defend Yuen Long's harmony and maintain regional tranquility" is displayed on a street in Yuen Long, Hong Kong on Tuesday. Photo: Yang Sheng/GT

When some radical protesters confronted the police Sunday night after they besieged the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong and tarnished the national emblem of China, about 20 kilometers northwest, some people in white clothes using bamboo sticks chased and beat people wearing black clothes at the Yuen Long Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station, which resulted in 45 injuries. 

Hong Kong opposition forces, attempting to divert the public attention from riots that insulted the national emblem to their narrative that "innocent residents were beaten," accused police of failing to arrive in time. Some Hong Kong and Western media even suggested the Hong Kong police and government were behind the incident. 

Police quickly launched an investigation and announced that they have arrested 10 people for "unlawful assembly."  

Hong Kong police and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor dismissed groundless accusations that Lam, the government and the police had colluded with the violent attackers.

Some radical Hong Kong forces did not buy it as they continued to incite "revenge" in Yuen Long. Media coverage from some Hong Kong and Western media outlets on the incident failed to give the people from Yuen Long a voice. 

The Global Times reporters who visited Yuen Long twice on Monday and Tuesday found out more on what was behind the Yuen Long incident.  

Why Yuen Long?

On a bus from Hong Kong Island to Yuen Long on Monday, one female passenger who was among only five passengers on the bus told the Global Times reporters that a rumor claiming "gangs will seek revenge in Yuen Long" and "something big is going to happen" widely circulated on social media, and some media reports, without verifying, suggested residents not visit Yuen Long between 3 and 10 pm Monday. 

Global Times reporters saw shops and malls in Yuen Long were closed early Monday evening.

It turned out to be a false alarm. Some Hong Kong residents later told the Global Times reporters that this may be the opposition forces' trick to disrupt the normal life of Yuen Long people.

Their life has returned to normal when the Global Times reporters visited Yuen Long again on Tuesday morning. The McDonald's in a mall was filled with office workers for breakfast. 

Banners which read "defend Yuen Long's harmony and maintain regional peace" could be seen along the streets. Residents who wore black shirts in the streets did not draw any hostility at all, which proved that what opposition forces previously claimed "wearing black clothes in Yuen Long is dangerous" was untrue.

Before Sunday's attack, some radical forces wearing black clothes in Yuen Long for anti-government promotions were driven away by residents in Yuen Long. Radical groups even shouted, "get Yuen Long, get the world." Why has Yuen Long, a district far from the financial center of Hong Kong, suddenly become the center of the conflict?

Among the 18 districts in Hong Kong, Yuen Long is located in the extreme northwest near Shenzhen Bay. It's less than 10 kilometers away from the Shenzhen Futian Port. Covering an area of 14,430 hectares, Yuen Long is home to 540,000 people.

The earliest significant settlements in Yuen Long date back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and many traditional ceremonies and rituals are still observed by its peoplet. 

Under Hong Kong law, a male resident over 18 years old born in the New Territories can apply for a small house with a maximum of three floors without paying land prices to the government. Most of those small houses are located in traditional Chinese villages previously used to defend against enemies and bandits. 

A resident surnamed Chow told the Global Times that villagers in Yuen Long live in relative peace and a rich life, as they don't need to buy houses. "Similarly, the people of Yuen Long also hate being disturbed by outsiders, because this will directly affect their peaceful and stress-free life," Chow said. 

Some villagers said that they are not that interested in politics and those who fought on Sunday at the MTR station were from outside. 

Yuen Long is emotionally close to the mainland, and the people are disgusted by the anti-government political movement because that will interrupt their daily life, some Yuen Long residents said. 

The radical anti-government protesters believe that occupying Yuen Long could be a symbolic victory for them as other pro-mainland patriotic groups might also collapse, some senior residents in Yuen Long told the Global Times.

The Global Times reporters saw signs saying, "Professional fengshui and numerology on dates of birth," and "Ancient temples congratulate the birthday of Guanyin."

Yuen Long people were attacked online after they drove away the radical forces, and posts on social media said some radical forces threatened to excavate the ancestral graves of Yuen Long people and destroy their ancestral temples. 

"For traditional Yuen Long people, this is obviously a serious provocation," Chow said. 

Hong Kong lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu was in hot water after he was filmed shaking hands with men in white clothes, although Ho explained to media that  it's normal for him, a Yuen Long resident, to be there.

But radical forces still broke the glass walls of his office in Tsuen Wan, made public his family's personal information, and even damaged his ancestor's grave by painting insulting messages. 

On Tuesday, dozens of Hong Kong lawmakers condemned the unlawful behavior of the radical people, and urged police to bring the suspects to justice.

Due to its proximity to the mainland, the number of mainland immigrants in Yuen Long is also higher than in other parts of Hong Kong. 

The owner of a grocery store surnamed Zhong told the Global Times that he swam to Hong Kong from the mainland in 1962 to escape famine. Most of the people now live in the villages in Yuen Long are older, as the younger ones work outside. 

"At my age [82], I had seen Japanese soldiers use bayonets to stab Chinese people in my early years and witnessed Chinese people being bullied by the British after coming to Hong Kong.

Young Hong Kong people have not experienced this, so they don't understand our feelings toward the motherland," Zhong said. 

Radical protesters in Hong Kong block a road and assault police on Sunday. Their behavior was widely condemned. Photo: Fan Lingzhi/GT

Often demonized

"Yuen Long people are actually very cool and cute. For example, some villagers like to invite singers at festivals and give red envelopes(filled with cash) generously to those singers," Chow said. 

Due to their unique characteristics, people in Yuen Long are often demonized. Some people link Yuen Long people with mafia-like gangsters, which is a misunderstanding of local culture. 

"Like young lion dancers will wear traditional costumes with the name of their ancestral halls each spring, some ill-intentioned people would like to attribute the names to organizations of mafia-like gangs," Chow said. 

After the Yuen Long incident, most Hong Kong media closely followed the slightest progress on the incident and seldom mentioned violent acts at the Central People's Government's Liaison Office.

"Some of the Hong Kong media are just like this, very biased," Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, currently a Legislative Council member who served as Hong Kong's Secretary for Security from 1998 to 2003, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Opposition groups continued to accuse police of not arriving at the scene immediately. Ip said that such accusations are not fair considering the limited police manpower.

"Police had to dispatch officers in different districts when the incident happened," Ip said. 

Western governments  spared no efforts to make groundless remarks on the Yuen Long incident. 

A US State Department spokesperson said that the ongoing demonstrations in Hong Kong reflected Hong Kong people's broad concerns about the "erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy."

The office of the commissioner of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong on Tuesday called the false remarks unwarranted accusations based on prejudice with ulterior motives, and the office urged the US to abandon double standards, immediately stop sending false signals to violent actions, and stop intervening in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying urged the US to take back their black hands in Hong Kong and asked it to be honest with the world about its role in recent radical incidents in Hong Kong.

In London, junior UK foreign minister Andrew Murrison said he "will be keeping a close eye" on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam's investigation into the assault at Yuen Long MTR station, while British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt  called for an independent inquiry into the police response to protests. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying urged the US to take back their black hands in Hong Kong and asked it to be honest with the world about its role in recent radical incidents in Hong Kong. It's obvious that external forces are behind those incidents, she said. 

In answering the questions of Hong Kong reporters on the Western countries' groundless remarks, Hua asked the reporters, "Did residents have the freedom to march on the streets during the British colonial rule?" 

If there is no security and stability, there are no rights or freedom, Hua said. She said that most Hong Kong citizens have a clear understanding of the nature of the harm of a very small number of radical activists, as local people have launched peaceful rallies to condemn the violence of the opposition forces to tear society apart. 


Newspaper headline: Yuen Long rejects disorder