A Hong Kong man living in New Zealand believes he was targeted by a member of the '50 Cent Army' - or a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sympathiser - hiding behind the guise of a Tinder user looking for love.
CCP sympathisers, or the '50 Cent Army', are state-backed internet users who use social media platforms to spread pro-China propaganda. The nickname was inspired by the now-debunked conspiracy theory that the government paid 0.50 renminbi per post.
There have been a number of reports regarding CCP sympathisers utilising western social media - particularly Twitter - to promote an anti-Hong Kong agenda amid the ongoing protests and conflict between the Chinese government and Hong Kong public.
On Saturday, Tsz Ho shared screenshots of an exchange with a Tinder match, named 'Cathy', to the Facebook group New Zealand Hong Konger.
"If you were ever in doubt who the shadowy hands are in the Hong Kong debate. Here is my first-hand evidence obtained through a Tinder match last night," Ho captioned the post.
The screenshots show Cathy introducing herself as being from Hong Kong, to which Ho asks: "How's the protests going?"
"Will calm down soon," Cathy responded. "I think [Hong Kong protesters] are disruptors because they don't work hard enough."
Ho pressed Cathy to explain her message, to which she continued: "They are very hateful, we live well, but they are lazy, do not work, always want to get something for nothing."
Speaking to Newshub, Ho said he became suspicious from the outset when he noticed the characters Cathy had used to describe her alma mater were written in simplified Chinese (大学) - used on the mainland - instead of the traditional characters used in Hong Kong (大學).
"In Hong Kong, we use traditional Chinese characters, while this lady used simplified Chinese characters - usually in use by people from mainland China," Ho said.
Ho also became suspicious when Cathy said the protests would "calm down soon", particularly following the Chinese government's passing of a national security bill in May to be imposed on Hong Kong. The law is widely seen by protesters as a threat to the political freedoms and civil liberties underpinning the 'one country, two systems' principle, inciting further outrage.
"For her to allude to the passing and enactment of the National Security Law in Hong Kong in the next few months, as the basis of providing stability in Hong Kong, was very similar to the rhetoric of the CCP," Ho explained.
"The painting of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong as 'disruptors' and 'hateful' was how they were characterised by the CCP in their official press conferences."
Cathy then claimed that the United States had "secretly" supported the protests to suppress China, branding American politicians as "very dangerous".
"The inclusion of the comments relating to the United States influencing the protests in Hong Kong was where I was completely blown away by how far she was willing to tow the party line," he told Newshub. "There was nothing she said that wasn’t as though it was completely scripted as the talking points from the CCP."
He attempted to get Cathy to explain her anti-US narrative, but she kept her answers vague.
"I just don't understand what the US has to do with the Hong Kong protests. Aren't the protesters just wanting freedom and democracy? What's so bad about that?" Ho asked.
She replied: "Is liberal democracy like the United States? It's ridiculous to shoot someone casually. We are free".
Ho pressed Cathy as to which 'we' she was referring to. She responded: "I feel like you are ignorant, I don't want to talk to you. Let's stop chatting."
Ho is unsure whether the person behind the account was trying to influence his way of thinking, or gauge the mood in New Zealand's expat community regarding the Hong Kong protests.
The conversation was his first personal interaction "to this kind of depth" with an account he suspects was run by a CCP sympathiser.
"In previous instances, the conversations have abruptly stopped once they found out I was from Hong Kong," he said.
Ho says it's "disturbing" and "offensive" if, as he suspects, CCP supporters are actively attempting to influence how New Zealanders perceive the protests in Hong Kong.
"The thought that they might be trying to 're-educate' foreigners, or people not closely associated with the situation in Hong Kong, is highly offensive. There has not been enough in-depth reporting of the plight of Hong Kong in New Zealand mainstream media, hence people could be influenced by what she was telling them about the protest movement," he explained.
"It was more abhorrent to me that they were getting away with saying that the entire protest movement in Hong Kong was instigated by outside influences, wherein this specific case the influence was coming from a likely CCP source or sympathiser."
The person behind the account immediately deleted the Tinder connection following the exchange. However, Ho has noticed more than five other Tinder profiles that match the exact same format as 'Cathy's'.
Ho says fake accounts run by '50 Cent Army' supporters or CCP sympathisers are dangerous when naive or ill-informed individuals are targeted and exposed to their rhetoric. People who have little knowledge regarding the ongoing tension between Hong Kong and mainland China will be easy for the supporters to "manipulate" into parroting their point of view.
The protests kicked off last year in response to the introduction of the Fugitive Offenders amendment bill, a bill that would have allowed the extradition of Hong Kongers to mainland China. Hong Kongers became concerned the bill would subject residents and visitors to mainland China's legal system, undermining Hong Kong's autonomy.
Despite the bill being withdrawn by Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam on September 4, she refused to concede to protesters other demands: an investigation into alleged police brutality and misconduct, the release of arrested protesters, a retraction of the protests being officially characterised as 'riots' and her resignation. Protests became increasingly violent following the implementation of an anti-mask law in October, leading to multiple deaths and the sieges of two universities.
Although the demonstrations subsided considerably due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the pro-democracy camp's unprecedented victory in the District Council election, the Chinese government's approval of a national security bill has sparked renewed protests. The legislation, which could be imposed on Hong Kong within a matter of months, was passed and enacted on May 28. The CCP's active interference in Hong Kong's affairs now poses a new threat to the administrative region's autonomy, according to protesters, inciting further outrage.
