CANBERRA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The recent violence in Hong Kong has been undermining peace and harmony, and hammering economy there, said Sam Wong who is from Hong Kong and has lived in Australia for half a century.
"My heart is sinking as a Hong Kong person living in Australia," said Wong, chair of Canberra Multicultural Community Forum Inc. "I think this is an absolute tragedy for the people of Hong Kong."
Wong, who had lived in Hong Kong for nearly 20 years before moving to Australia, told Xinhua that from his relative in Hong Kong, he has learned about what happened there.
Things deteriorated in Hong Kong with protesters becoming more and more violent, he said, adding "I think they become urban terrorists, with escalating violence."
"They destroyed peace and harmony in Hong Kong."
In this process, he said some Western media played a very bad role.
"The Western press in general ... rarely have any good news about China," he said. "In the case of Hong Kong, I think the Western media have been very selective. They always favor the protesters, the rioters."
Meanwhile, "for the most tolerant Hong Kong police, they have been demonized, or damned as black police," Wong said.
"Until recent time, only a day or so ago, the police fired the first shot into air to scare the rioters because they were really in danger of their lives. And there are policemen in the hospital because of the rock attack through rioters. Interestingly, the press said the rioters were deliberately attacked by the police. And that's been on for quite some time."
Speaking in English and sometime in Cantonese, Wong said the biased reports showed the double standard of certain Western countries.
Wong said people's freedom in Hong Kong has significantly improved compared with the time before the year of 1997 when Hong Kong returned to the motherland.
"I was brought up there in the 50s and 60s," he recalled. "Under the British colonial rules, if you had a slight disagreement ... or you are trying to protest anything, you would be arrested quickly."
Wong said the recent riot would deal a blow to Hong Kong's economy. "You can see people are not coming to Hong Kong by airport because there was violence, and many shops are shutting down," he said. "There will be huge unemployment because people are not going out and buying things."
What's more, rioters vandalized infrastructure like lamp poles and traffic lights. "They even damaged shops," he said. "Hong Kong will recover, but it may take some time. For now, it is too bad."
