The Paid Protestors
(Context: two threads detailing pro-Beijing protestors who consistently appear in state-media)
1/ Xinhua News reports that the life of "#HongKong" resident Carey Chan (陳新軍) was badly affected by last year's protests, but thanks to the #NationalSecurityLaw, his life is again back on track. So, who is this poor old sod Carey Chan?
2/ In the Xinhua video, Chan claims that he's been living in #HongKong for MORE THAN 7 years, but in an earlier interview with the Global Times (https://china.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKnIaY…), he said that he arrived only in 2014. So technically, he's not yet a permanent resident of the city.
3/ Chan made regular appearances last year on Chinese state media outlets (which seem to have a hard time finding native background actors to play the part of "patriotic" HongKongers) condemning the #HongKongProtests and showing support for the police.
4/ Like all "patriotic" Chinese, Chan never hesitates to let his "patriotism" show. According to the Global Times (https://china.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKn5WT…), he's even helped organise a "city-wide" Chinese National Day celebration last year.
5/ He also claimed in this interview (https://hn.rednet.cn/content/2019/11/11/6196521.html…) that he's participated in over 200 pro-government rallies/activities. Just take a look at his collection of "patriotic" t-shirts.
#Thread - Who is Xu Tianmin (徐天民)? 1/ According to Xinhua, the head of Liaison Office visited 2 "local residents" on 01 Oct, Xu Tianmin was one of them. Today, some yellow KOLs claimed that Xu was in fact a reporter working for Beijing Daily, but that claim seems to be FALSE.
2/ Judging by this photo, it's clear that Xu was being interviewed by Beijing Daily, rather than representing the paper. So who is Xu Tianmin? Why is he "the chosen one" to receive a home visit from Luo Huining, the de facto leader of #HongKong?
3/ It seems that Xu is indeed a Hunan native currently living in #HongKong as suggested in the Xinhua article. Xu appears to be a "patriotic" pro-police "activist". There are plenty of photos of him participating in different anti-US and pro-government rallies.
4/ And according to his own account (https://hn.rednet.cn/content/2019/10/11/6117059.html…), he's also responsible for the destruction of pro-democracy #LennonWalls in many neighbourhoods.
5/ His "activism" probably explains why he's a regular interviewee for state media outlets. More than once, he's been interviewed by Xinhua and Beijing Daily, and this is his latest "interview" by Ta Kung Pao.
6/ In a Wen Wei Po article dated 02 Oct, Xu listed the "financial sacrifices" he made to "serve the motherland": - spent HK$100k on the citywide clearances of #LennonWalls - donated HK$100k to his hometown - sent medical supplies worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to China