Since few weeks ago, we are exposed in the Western media to the protests that take place in Hong Kong. The narrative is clear, concise, and directional; the people of Hong Kong have a Western mentality and demonstration are carry out because that communist China wants to be able to deport all those who have political ideas that the Chinese government does not like. No one can be confused or fail to understand that easy publicized narrative. However, when one begin to analyze the elements on the map-board, the western media story does not add up. When that sort of protests happen, questions always arise about what logistics are needed to carry them out. When the Maidan protests happened in Ukraine there were protesters receiving food, clean clothes, rudimentary military tactical clothes, tents, and direct access to international media over three long winter months. Later it was known that the participants in the protests had been trained for months to overthrow the government. What was sold in the press as a spontaneous protest of the population turned out to be a covert political operation sponsored and organized by actors in the shadows. The last weeks events in Hong Kong suggest that the same thing is happening again. Hong Kong events are not only romantic protesters holding umbrellas before police. The protests may be many things, but not spontaneous.
Covert political operations are the most secret part of the foreign policy of states with global or regional projection. In that kind of covert actions there are not visible performances by the state, its administrations, or agents; the hand that leads the performance must be unknown. One of the most classic covert political actions is to promote citizen protests aimed to provoke a government change. The goal of covert political operation is to align the internal policy of a third country with the foreign policy of the own state. In Hong Kong, we have seen how a Chinese law that could have gone unnoticed has become the cornerstone of a mass protest. The protests of the autonomous city have many elements previously used in covert operations; the articulation of a straightforward narrative that can be extended to all society disregarding education, the creation of media leaders used as martyrs, having access to international media, and the publicity of their kindly demands while hiding the violence of their acts. Also it is necessary to highlight that the protests of Hong Kong are not senseless; they have very well defined strategic objectives, along with operational and tactical knowledge to achieve those goals; that is not commonly found in the masses. Hong Kong protesters have achieve to block the city in social, political and economic terms; to cut down airports communications, to make streets impassable, to paralyze foreign investments, to call international attention beyond western media coverage, to induce fear in the rest of population who do not participate. The organizers of Hong Kong demonstrations show an excellent understanding of the steps needed to be taken by the protesters to achieve those complex goals, and this suggests that there is professional advice offered by actors behind the curtain.
China's growth is worrying to other global actors that previously had no reason to be worried. It is very plausible that China is being harassed with covert political operations in the same way that it is being harassing with public political actions. These types of activities are usually performed simultaneously; on the one hand, with public political actions the foreign policy of a state is affected, while on the other hand, with covert political operations the internal administration of the that state is stressed. China can resist both public and undercover harassment, it is a robust and cohesive state, and with a clear agenda for the future. What history has taught us is that in case of failure the use of covert actions becomes more substantial open hostilities. If the events of Hong Kong are lead from abroad, and if whoever leads demonstrations does not achieve their goals, another level of confrontation will result. In previous failed covert political operations, the next step has always been to alter the relations with regional partners, trying to get these local actors to take the confrontation to a higher level. China has to reaffirm the regional alliances that have both at political and economic level. China cannot allow matters such as Hong Kong's protests to be present in its foreign policy negotiations, so strategic diplomacy is necessary to be applied.
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