Last week’s surreal press conference re-writing the events of July 21, 2019, was not only an absurd piece of authoritarian theatre, it was the latest example of gaslighting tactics compounding a growing mental health crisis in Hong Kong.

The term gaslighting – to sow seeds of doubt with the aim of making a person question their own memory, perception or judgment, and ultimately their sanity – usually relates to manipulative behaviour in abusive personal relationships.

The term originates from a British play, “Gaslight”, in which a husband attempts to convince his wife she is insane using various means, including dimming gaslights and denying it, with the aim of having her institutionalised and ultimately stealing an inheritance.

Gaslight, the play, may not be as well-known as the term itself, a concept which has worked its way into mainstream psychology, yet the creativity of the original and its film remakes can’t compare to the mind-bending whitewashing of history presented at last Wednesday’s Hong Kong Police Force press conference.

To seriously analyse Wednesday’s claims – that the events in and around Yuen Long MTR were a “clash” between two groups and not simply a premeditated attack on commuters by a group of men armed with metal rods and rattan canes – only serves to legitimise lies.

At worst the extensive and heavily scrutinised video evidence suggests police collusion with the white-shirted attackers, and at best incompetence and woeful inaction by police.

Even for a public conditioned to misleading and evasive police statements this was a new low. There was no effort to explain the footage in a plausible way, and instead an alternative reality was introduced.

Police ensured there were some real world actions to go with the make believe when 16 people, including pro-democracy MPs Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting, were arrested and likely charged with rioting on July 21. Any conman will tell you that a good lie needs an element of truth, so maybe the authorities felt that throwing some riot charges into the mix would add realism to proceedings.

For a general populace suffering with alarming rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression ­– a recent report found three quarters of Hong Kongers were suffering from depression, and half of young people with symptoms of PTSD – the misinformation can have a corrosive effect.

It’s one thing to be chased, attacked or harassed by police or thugs – or witness extreme acts of violence – as many in Hong Kong experienced on any given Sunday through the latter part of last year. But it is demoralising to be told it either didn’t happen, or read or hear a completely different version of events to first-hand experience.

Even if a reader is able to dismiss the twisted narratives like those proclaiming a “silent majority” of anti-protest sentiment, or police lowballing of crowd figures, the propaganda can act like Chinese water torture on the psyche.

Gaslighting isn’t always intentional and often happens through a work colleague, neighbour, friend or family member that has fallen for false narratives; falsehoods as simple as media presenting the protesters as the predominant aggressors, not the police.

Even police misinformation as wildly off-the-mark as last week’s statements still demands space in stories from reputable news outlets. In the name of balance and fairness, journalists – often time poor and desk-bound with little first-hand knowledge of events – feel obliged to report the police statements as fact. This “both sides journalism” gives airtime to lies and provides the narratives a legitimacy that is wholly undeserved.

Then there is social media and the more direct gaslighting targeting pro-democracy campaigners from state-sponsored accounts.

Before Twitter shut down more than 170,000 accounts operated from within the PRC for pushing CCP propaganda it would be common for a Tweet mentioning the five demands to be met with a reply along the lines of “are you insane?”

In recent days a striking piece of graffiti has appeared on walls in Hong Kong: the traditional Chinese character for horse with deer antlers attached. It refers to an ancient Chinese idiom “指鹿為馬” that translates to “Calling a Deer a Horse.” It describes a situation when a person says the opposite of what is true to deceive others.

The idiom’s origins strike a cautionary tale for officials and speak to core issues for not only the HKPF, but the Hong Kong government and ultimately the CCP.

When fearful and sycophantic ministers convinced emperor Hu Hai that a deer presented to him was actually a horse, it triggered the downfall of the Qin Dynasty.

For all of the negative effects of propaganda on the public, the lies have become so big that the Hong Kong people can see the HKPF is presenting a deer, not a horse, but can President Xi?

(Michael Cox is a journalist and Hong Kong permanent resident currently based in Australia. He has previously written for the South China Morning Post, The Age (Melbourne) and Australian Associated Press.)

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