HK radicals cant’t succeed, academic says

Expert says rioters have absolutely no chance of achieving separatist agenda

Hong Kong is part of China and the rioters have “zero chance of success” of separating the city from its motherland, an economic policy expert has said.

” (For) the people who lead these protests, their demands are not the ones that they put forward, and what they really want is the separation of Hong Kong from China,” said John Ross, a senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, on Thursday.

The rioters are trying to disrupt “one country, two systems”, and they have absolutely no chance of success in achieving their separatist agenda, said Ross, who was born in Britain. He is also a former director of economic and business policy for the mayor of London.

But the danger is that this smaller group of people is manipulating a much larger group, he said, referring to people who have grievances about the city’s social problems.

Ross said there had been foreign interference that complicated the situation in Hong Kong, including from his own country, and also from the United States.