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As many of you probably already know, protests are going on in Hong Kong as a portion of its citizens are demanding for electoral democracy. The protest, which began on 26 September, triggered off a chain of events, from students boycotting classes, to thousands of people occupying several major areas of the bustling city in demonstration, to mysterious flying objects, and now, mysterious doppelgängers.

Long story short, the protesters are putting up a peaceful fight in favor of fair electoral rights and public nominations by launching a civil disobedience campaign more commonly known as Occupy Central, in which the participants occupy various areas including major commercial areas such as Mong Kok, Causeway Bay, and of course, the Central Government Complex.

At the same time, there are also citizens who are in the opposing faction, collectively known as the Anti-Occupy activists, who have been attempting to put an end to the protests by tearing down barricades and tents set up by the Occupy protestors, some even resorting to violence.

Causeway_Bay_sit-in“Causeway Bay sit-in” by Citobun. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

To be honest, based on local and international media coverage, it’s hard to understand exactly what is going on in Hong Kong right now, but from the looks of it, even the locals are in a state of confusion over some recent sightings of doppelgängers on the news.

We initially saw the conflict as three clear factions, the Occupy Central activists, the Anti-Occupy people, and the police. The police have been involved in attempts to get the Occupy protesters to clear out of the areas they’ve been sitting on, and it has been reported that they have used tear gas and pepper spray in these attempts.

However, with the Occupy Central activists refusing to budge from their demonstration locations, it seems that the police have taken on a different approach and are trying to break down the mass occupation from within by sneaking spies into both the pro and anti-Occupy groups.

▼ The T-shirt-clad young man pictured on the left was initially reported as an Occupy Central protester, who appeared suddenly and agreed to move away from the location they were occupying upon negotiations with the police (thus the photo with the officer). However, internet users have later pointed out that said man was probably the same person pictured on the right, and called out the police for staging an act of successful negotiation.

▼ This man was seen on the news in a street interview, commenting that the protests have a negative impact on the economy, but was later seen again being escorted away by the police for acts of violence on the peaceful protesters. Some claim that he is a mainland Chinese spy. Well, at least his words and his actions were not contradicting…

▼ Two different news outlets showed footage of the same guy, but one says he’s a member of the Anti-Occupy faction, while the annotation on the other channel says he’s a tourist from Shenzhen. Could this interview be a setup too, or just a journalism slip up?

▼ Another individual singled out for being a spy from the police force. Some netizens claim that he was seen beating up members of the Occupy group while dressed in casual clothes and taking on the stand of an Anti-Occupy activist.
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Some protesters have also reported that the police watched as they were attacked by the Anti-Occupy groups, while others stated that the police appeared to stop the assaults and “arrested” those who initiated violence, but ended up escorting them into taxis and sending them off instead of bringing them back to the station in a police vehicle.

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What exactly is going on here? Well, we don’t know for sure if these “dopplegangers” are really the same people, or just too much of a coincidence, but we do believe that in such clashes between two conflicting groups, the police are supposed to take on a neutral stand and protect citizens from harm regardless of their political leanings. If the cases of “spies” and faked arrests are true as some netizens are claiming, then this protest is a lot more complicated than it may seem.

If you’re reading this from Hong Kong, stay safe!

Source: Setnews.net via Toychan.net
Images: Setnews.net