🇮🇹 1/ The Chinese government has been quite critical of my speech at the Italian parliament, calling the Italian government "irresponsible". I think China's criticism is completely out of reason and shows no respect to the basic freedoms of people from other democracies.
2/ It is clear that China is its authoritarian regime and political censorship to Italy. The Beijing authority is utterly ignorant of the will of Hong Kong people and deliberately distort the demands of over millions of people.
3/ As latest polls, over 80% of the city population support democracy. Even the ex-head of legislature Jasper Tsang supports the need for political reform. The landslide victory of election is another proof. I urge Beijing to honour its promise of true and fair democracy in HK.
4/ Italy joined the belt and road project, signing a memorandum with China cause concrete risk for Italy to fall completely under chinese influence. It's a perfect example that China will use it's as the economic leverage to export its authoritarian value and censorship to Italy.
5/ Any comments that were unfavourable to China-imposed red line will fall prey to China's hegemony. That will be a dire threat to the freedom of speech of Italian people. Also, overdependence on Chinese investments in infrastructure comes with tremendous political risks.
6/ Beijing is now pushing its companies to grab markets overseas. Italian firms have to face direct competition from Chinese companies & may be easily squeezed out, not to mention China's poor record of stealing strategic technology through the practice of forced tech transfers.
7/ In fact, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines that have taken part in China's BRI are considering pulling out those large projects, due to the political concerns about the growing reliance on Chinese investments.
8/ Hong Kong police have imported 129 Daily HI-MATIC model patrol cars from Italian manufacturer Iveco in 2017. As countless news reports show, patrol cars were used to crash to Hong Kong protesters. I urged the Italian government to stop selling patrol cars to Hong Kong.
9/ I also called on the Italian government and parliament to support our cause for democracy in Hong Kong, since that is the only way to secure our autonomy and protect Italian business interest in Hong Kong.
10/ Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio has criticised china which is insightful. I hope the Italian foreign minister can support our democratic aspirations in Hong Kong, as democracy is the only way to de-escalate the situation and maintain prosperity and stability in HK.
11/ President Xi Jinping proclaimed that HK movement would end in "crushed bodies and shattered bones". CCP urged legislation of national security laws. It's worth noting that Beijing tries to frame the movement as "terrorism", the same thing that they do to Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
12/ Therefore, it is expected the similar model of repression will take part in Hong Kong. There is no exaggeration to say "Xinjiang today, Hong Kong tomorrow."
