After pro-China camp suggest taking gun and machetes to deal with Vancouver’s ‘trash’ Hong Kong protesters, police ask questions

Pro-China activist Victor Feng confirmed authenticity of WeChat messages by his fellow supporters talking of bringing weapons to face Hong Kong protesters

He said the discussions were a joke, but a Hong Kong democracy activist said the ‘very threatening’ messages forced the cancellation of a planned event

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Pro-China protesters rally outside Vancouver’s Broadway subway station on August 17. They were facing a rival crowd supporting the Hong Kong protest movement, with police keeping the rival camps separated. Photo: Kevin Huang

Published: 5:53am, 13 Sep 2019Updated: 12:13pm, 13 Sep 2019

An organiser of pro-China protests in Vancouver said he was questioned by police over WeChat discussions in which other supporters talked of bringing a gun, machetes, knives and rocks to use against “trash” Hong Kong activists.

Victor Feng confirmed the authenticity of widely circulated screenshots of the WeChat discussion about the weapons, but said the messages last month were only a “joke” made by “hothead idiots”.

He said he participated in the discussion to tell others to stop talking about weapons, in case they were “taken out of context”.

Feng said in a recent interview that he was questioned by police about the WeChat messages at a protest outside a Vancouver subway station on August 17, after he introduced himself to officers.

Victor Feng took part in a series of pro-China protests in Vancouver, paying for flagpoles and Chinese flags waved by demonstrators. Photo: Ian Young

There were a series of raucous events in Vancouver that weekend, in which opponents of the Hong Kong protest movement waved Chinese flags and sang the Chinese national anthem as they faced off against supporters of the movement.