You've got to believe in the "genius" of the Chinese!

"It is not common for a 15-year-old student to lead the movement of civil disobedience," Joshua Wong, 17-year-old leader of Scholarism, boasts of his "impressive feat" in 2012 - playing the leading role in a campaign against the Hong Kong government's plans to implement national education in local schools, in an interview with the Financial Times.

Ever since his 2012 antics, Wong has been chosen and groomed as a "political superstar" by the city's opposition camp, specifically the Civic Party.

He was not chosen because of any political skills or his credentials. It is hardly convincing that a high school boy possesses any meaningful political savvy. He was chosen because of the qualities of recklessness and radical mindset he had demonstrated in violent actions which saw him storming the government headquarters and the Legislative Council, harassing top government officials and charging at law enforcers.

"Teenager Joshua Wong picks up democracy baton in Hong Kong," the Financial Times exclaims in its headline.

"17-year-old Hong Kong student prepares for democracy battle," CNN says.

"Joshua Wong: The 17-year-old public face of Hong Kong's protests," the Wall Street Journal writes after Wong was arrested for storming the government headquarters on Sept 28.

All these and other appropriately breath-taking reports or commentaries run by these highly regarded Western media spoke highly of the "heroism" of this young man. They almost worshipped the ground he walked on. But they unanimously forgot to question his recklessness and lawlessness.

And none of them had bothered to ask the more profound question: Why should Hong Kong - a peaceful, free, prosperous and mature society - need a rebellious 17-year-old hero?

The answer is because of the city's prosperity and maturity. In a prosperous, free society such as Hong Kong citizens are generally rational and pragmatic. The opposition had long realized: There was no way they could influence mature citizens for the purpose of advancing their political cause.

They had to turn to intrinsically impulsive, impressionable young people. Wong and his similarly radical Scholarism partners, a group of high school students, have naturally become the favorite foot soldiers of the opposition camp, particularly the Civic Party - Wong and Scholarism's sponsor.

The strategy is to rally support by giving Hong Kong people reasons to hate the government. Their tactic is to let their young foot soldiers invite police crackdowns by deliberately staging violent confrontations.

There has also been strong evidence of the involvement of US consulate personnel in the cultivation of young protesters in the city. These include recorded minutes of meetings and photographs recently made available, which suggest frequent, protracted meetings between Wong and US consulate officials.

It would be naive for anyone to believe that these US consulate officials care about Wong's studies.

The Civic Party and Washington might have different agendas, but they have common interests in cultivating young foot soldiers in the city. By cultivating hatred against the government among the youth, the Civic Party hopes to raise their odds of taking control of the city; and Washington to export "color revolution"- via this open window to be controlled by their allies - to the mainland to curb the rise of China.

Having successfully ushered in "color revolutions" across the former Soviet Union member states and the "Arab Spring" in the Middle East, the extreme rightists from the "democracy bastion" are now laying siege to a stronger fortress which practices an ideology that differs from theirs. For them, a rising new power will threaten the unipolar world they strive to maintain. This intention to contain China has been increasingly evident as Washington pushes ahead with its "Pivot to Asia" strategy, the latest move of which was to partially lift its decades-long arms embargo on Vietnam, once the US's bitter enemy, now locked in territorial disputes with China over islands in the South China Sea.

This strategy of cultivating young foot soldiers is carried out through multiple conduits, under different guises in Hong Kong, with great efforts being made to infiltrate schools. The Hong Kong-America Center, for example, established at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and headed by former senior US intelligence official Morton Holbrook, provides student leaders with training on political struggle while presenting itself as an educational institute.

Rising radicalism among the city's young students including high school pupils such as Wong - as witnessed in the on-going "Occupy Central" movement - is no doubt seen as an initial victory by these political schemers. They might be laughing to themselves now.

But other than a few lucky ones - including Wong - who have secured incentive schemes including scholarships, residence visas and a refuge when needed, the rest of these youngsters who might be misled into breaking the law will be left out. They are unassisted, on their own and at the mercy of the law. What could be more convincing evidence than the fact that the majority of the opposition leaders have been conspicuous by their absence throughout most of the "Occupy" actions, despite their pledged participation?

This reminds us of the evil practice of warlords in certain war-torn regions of Africa, who recruit child soldiers by taking advantage of their hunger and helplessness. But here, extreme right-wingers from Washington and political schemers from the opposition camp take advantage of the idealism and impulsiveness of the city's youngsters.

Sigh, beneath the veil of "democracy" lies dirty politics.

The author is a current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 10/08/2014 page7)