Violent radicals attempt to break and enter the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2019. (Xinhua)
If the same protest takes place in Germany, the police "would deal with it in two or three days and that the protestors would not be allowed to demonstrate at the airport," said German sinologist Wolfgang Kubin.
BONN, Germany, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Germany's prestigious sinologist Wolfgang Kubin said on Tuesday that protests in Hong Kong were not peaceful since demonstrators occupied the airport and Western media have made biased reports.
Kubin, a tenured professor at the University of Bonn, told Xinhua that he doesn't agree with the German or international media reports that protests in Hong Kong were peaceful.
"Since they occupied the airport and did not allow passengers to check in and many flights had to be canceled, their protests were no longer peaceful but aggressive," said Kubin in an interview.
Kubin said Hong Kong police had exercised restraint and tolerance in the face of protestors. Although there were some problems, such as protestors getting injured, people need to look into the real causes, he added.
Questions should be asked like who started the fight first, he said, adding that protestors got injured in both the Yellow Vest protest in France and the anti-migration protest in Chemnitz, Germany last year.
Violent radicals set fires after blocking a road in Causeway Bay, south China's Hong Kong, Aug. 4, 2019. (Xinhua)
Kubin said he believes that if the same protest takes place in Germany, the police "would deal with it in two or three days and that the protestors would not be allowed to demonstrate at the airport."
The sinologist said he was trying to see things in an objective way, but he and some other sinologists have found that many German and international media had shown obvious bias when reporting on Hong Kong.
"For example, a girl joining the protest got her eye injured, which many German media reported time and again. But in the Yellow Vest protest in France, about 1,000 people got eye injuries, and the German media had hardly reported. It is unfair!" said Kubin.
The sinologist said he thought that many German and Western reporters have a kind of unconsciousness when it comes to China, which is deeply rooted in an ideological bias.
The problem originates from a longtime negative narrative of China in movies and stories that have made the public to accept the bad image of China unconsciously, Kubin said.
"I have got rid of the prejudice but many others have not. It is a psychological problem for them," said Kubin.
