This critique by @johncw_Mok on pro-Trump sentiments in HK and TW connects nicely with @kevinkfyam's recent op-ed. Summaries in English below. https://news.mingpao.com/pns/%e5%89%af%e5%88%8a/article/20201101/s00005/1604167612540

Netizens on LIHKG aren't the only ones who support Trump as a competent leader against the CCP. HK political commentators and Chinese dissidents who have once championed democratic values have also shifted over to Trump.

Examples include Wang Dan who supported gay marriage and "universal values" but claimed that the Dems have become too far left. Yu Jie who became a right-wing evangelical Christian.

Chip Tsao, Joseph Lian, Ngan Shun Kau, and Lee Yee observe white supremacist ideologies, and disavowed BLM. While the American public didn't react too much to the Hunter Biden conspiracy theory, HK and TW KOLs and Apple Daily were using it as proof that Biden has been bought out.

It's not hard to understand why many Chinese folks support Trump. Wang Dan has said that he sees the CCP as the world's worst enemy, and he believed that Trump can counter it. However, many fervently support Trump beyond the strategic level.

Going against Biden isn't the problem b/c he represents liberals who never want systemic change, nor will they challenge the US's econ base for profit. But supporting Trump is a much bigger problem.

During the first debate, KOLs didn't consider how Trump told Proud Boys, a right-wing Fascist group, to stand by. How would Chip and Lee feel if, after a blue ribbon killed a protester with a car, the Chief Executive said that "there were good people on both sides?"

Those who oppose police violence in Hong Kong and yet support brutality in the US; and those who accept South Asians as co-strugglers, but turn around to support openly racist politicians: where is your conscience?

Trump has been destroying democratic values globally, and China has also been exporting authoritarianism, linking up with Turkey and Russia. HK, TW and Chinese KOLs parrot Trump to attack democratic values. Their speech inject authoritarianism into HK's pro-democracy movement.

There's a huge misconception that everything that happens in an institutionally democratic country is democratic. Those who idolize Trump from afar are those who are the most oblivious to suffering on the ground.

Realistically: do you really think that 4 more years of Trump can democratize China or topple the CCP? Even if the regime falls, it's not likely for the state to become democratic, see Russia and the USSR as an example.

During the anti-extradition movement, folks used MLK's slogan "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" to motivate international support. But it seems that what HKers really believe is "injustice in HK Only is a threat to justice everywhere."

Some say: "BLM is too violent! They have hurt too many innocent people!" To that I can only respond: "Are you really an activist for Hong Kong?"