This article published by The Diplomat is written by Simon Shen. Here is an excerpt:

If you believe the Chinese government, Benny Tai is a mastermind and the principal offender, guilty of conspiring to subvert Chinese state power. He had a rebellious history dating back to the 2013 Occupy Central protests. This time, Tai outlined a highly subversive plan in a manifesto titled “Ten Steps to Mutual Destruction.” The manifesto called for pro-democracy councilors in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) to blackmail the city government, threatening China’s unquestionable authority in Hong Kong. His first step in executing this evil plot was orchestrating pro-democratic primary elections in July 2020 with his accomplice, the activist group “Power for Democracy.” All candidates participating in the primary elections were members of this subversive gang. All polling centers and media groups that supported the primaries were witnesses of the crime, who could be arrested later. The 600,000 voters in the primaries? They could be investigated as accessories to the crime if there was evidence of subversive actions.

This is the narrative behind the recent mass arrest of over 50 pro-democracy figures, based on press conferences given by Hong Kong police and national security agencies and numerous articles published by pro-Beijing media. The narrative follows the typical Chinese state logic, which centers on a presumption of guilt, denies the free will of people, and tends to create the narrative of a “criminal organization” (usually backed by foreign powers), with the ultimate goal to explain away a simple truth: People are dissatisfied with an incompetent government.

A self-justified story like this may suit China’s internal propaganda but is far detached from reality if you closely examine the happenings surrounding the primary elections.

Read the full article here.