Opinion | How Hong Kong protesters are turning off their mainland Chinese supporters

On June 16, I shared on my social media feeds a clip of thousands of Hong Kong demonstrators moving aside in seconds to allow an ambulance to pass, amid a two-million-person march against a controversial bill that would allow the extradition of suspects to the mainland. “It’s like Moses parting the Red Sea, so moving,” I wrote.

More than two months later, with radicalisation and violence tarnishing the movement, many are now having second thoughts. In mid-August, seeing the chaos at Hong Kong airport when protesters blocked travellers from boarding their flights and assaulted two mainland individuals suspected of being “undercover policemen”, these initially sympathetic friends expressed their disappointment.

For Richard, a Cantonese-speaking Guangzhou native who received his master’s degree in the United States and has worked in Hong Kong for nearly 10 years, the turning point was July 1, when protesters smashed the glass doors of the Legislative Council and vandalised it. “I don’t understand why people who claim to value democracy would ruin one of the most important democratic institutions that fulfils the separation of powers. It’s good for nothing except venting.”