People made the mistake thinking they can troll the government by using cartoon/animals to depicit the government
This is really, really interesting, because it the influence operation is very poorly disguised.
More info:
First and foremost, it is not a real union, but a made up by protestors
However, when western media reports it, then it can seem like a crackdown on an actual union
Surprisingly NYT is honest about the above point
The speech therapists’ union was formed in 2019, during the height of the antigovernment protests, when many new unions were formed in part to challenge the political power of older labor groups aligned with Beijing.
However most outlets will omit that point. Reuters did (Which is what most outlets will pick up from)
which
While it is disguised as "free speech", it is really what would qualify as hate speech in Western countries.
From The Guardian:
Janitors of Sheep Village, the second book, sees cleaners in the village go on strike to force out wolves who leave litter everywhere.
The book’s introduction explains it is a reference to Hong Kong medical workers striking last year in a bid to force the government to close the border with mainland China at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is really dishonest for the western media to portray this as an anti-government thing. It is really standard for HKers to consider mainlanders as "dirty" and always littering, and in this case also virus carriers. So if they want to "stop anti-asian violence" and "stop calling it a Chinese virus", then how is this a free speech issue?
Also to note, $20,000 USD was frozen. While it is not a huge sum, between 3 young people under 30, it is not insignificant either.