Re: Top Democrats tell supporters to ‘stand up and fight’, as anti-Trump protests tur
What do you think the government and media there would have done had Hillary Clinton won? You said they were both supporting her before the election, what would their propaganda be now in your opinion?
Just my opinion, but they were spinning it other way to their benefit before. For example, before the election results, there was incessant talk from the media talking heads about the South China Sea "issue", and how Hillary was behind the pivot (with an emphasis on it NOT being Obama). Many nationalistic Chinese here view the US's pivot as trying to "keep us down", so to speak. A lot of talk was about how the PRC was currently "winning the war" in regards to SCS, what with Duterte announcing his "separation" from the US, the new fighter jet, the aircraft carrier going into commission with takeoffs / landings working, new carrier killer missiles, etc. Some of us viewed the so-called "pro-Hillary" media as more so, "We must stay ready, if Hillary wins (as expected), we will need to be united and vigilant over against the US, as she will step up the "freedom of navigation" provocation". In a sense, the US elections were used both as a call for unity, to denounce the "separatists" (which includes a lot of people, from good-hearted pro-democracy advocates, to crazy burn it down anarchists, in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and to an extent Tibet and majority Muslim Xinjiang), and as a call to be prepared to resist the "American Empire". It wasn't that they were "supporting" Hillary per se, it was more so, whelp, she's probably gonna win, so let's use her against our adversaries kind of thing.
So when Trump won, after less than 24 hours, the tone completely changed. For example, "Oh, Hillary lost because she was "sexist" (haha), and the Democrats were abusing the little people and calling them idiots. Unlike us supporters of Beijing, who (of course) love the little people." Or "Look at those riots, don't they look familiar to the pro-democracy Occupy movement? WE would never allow evil protesters (or other kinds) to beat you up or destroy your shop", basically labeling everyone that wants to keep Hong Kong's freedoms as a traitor and "running dogs" and "bananas" (used as a racist terms by people to drown out dissent, USA left-wing style, similar to Uncle Tom...yellow on the outside, white on the inside kind of thing). Not that the ultra left is any better with the "50 cent" terms.
In addition, it's not necessarily both the media and gov. that were pushing it. There are so-called pro-Western local media here, published in the local dialect, and one is quite famous for it's (unsubstantiated, but MANY people believe this) links to the Clinton family, to the CFR, and the National Endowment for Democracy. However, it is banned in mainland China, and is regarded by the majority of HK and Macau people as a tabloid rag (kind of like the National Enquirer).
In regards to Obama, you would be surprised at a lot of the local sentiment in many parts of mainland China, especially among the educated, those that want to immigrate, many of those that are "rags to riches", or have dreams of studying in the USA. For many, many people, Obama is literally "the bomb". I've hardly ever met anyone in China, wealthy or not, that doesn't privately admire Obama. His speeches, especially the "don't tell me words don't matter" one, are being read to children all over, by their parents and (secretly) by some educators. There's this ingrained feeling in a lot of mainland Chinese, due to propaganda, hard times in their youth, and (at times) personal experience, that white American is racist to everyone else (not all, and not true IMHO), so not only were people shocked when Obama first took office, a lot of them felt connected to him...you know, poor guy that "made it", just like us. There are literally people that believe Obama was swimming against a sea of racists that were trying to lynch him at every step, so for him to have "won" doesn't show America isn't racist, it just shows that Obama is "the man". In a sense, there's a disconnect between Obama the MAN, and Obama the PRESIDENT (specifically his policies), which a ton of people constantly rail against.
