Ryan Lau published a book on the 7.21 Yuen Long Attack to prevent distortion of history

Author: Pang Lei Fong 

The 7.21 Yuen Long Attack happened almost one year ago. Ryan Lau, who was brutally beaten up by a group of men in white that night, said he remembered every second of the assault on him. 

Due to the trauma of the attack, he could not stand watching the episode of Hong Kong Connection about the Yuen Long Attack. He avoided contact with anything related to the attack. Yet, disappointed by the attitudes of Independent Police Complaints Council and the police towards the truth, he decided to face his fear and interviewed 40 people — he spent three months writing the book “A Dark Night in Yuen Long”, reconstructing the attack.

According to him, the deal behind the incident was this: on that day, the mobs from the villages received the instruction that they would have 30 minutes to do whatever they wanted without any monitoring. It was just a simple plot - gather all the gangsters at Kai Tei to show their power, beat one or two persons randomly to “complete the task”, and then leave. The plot turned into an uncontrollable indiscriminate attack because of three accidents.

During his investigation, Lau found several culprits: the Small House Policy introduced in 1970, the government turning a blind eye to the mobs rooted in the villages after the handover, and the conflicting local powers originated from the development of the West Rail Line. “There were many seeds sown a long long time ago. Many people who never knew each other were entangled at that moment, leading to the incident.”

Determined to seek truth due to disappointment at the authority

Lau left TVB (the largest television broadcasting company in Hong Kong) in 2010 at the age of 29, putting an end to his journalism career. He said he “never looked back”. He held a slim hope for the legal system in Hong Kong, so he waited for someone to come forward to tell the truth objectively. 

Yet, a few months later, he only witnessed how the police distorted the truth. “They put a new Commissioner in office and started to make up a story.”  In December 2019, Yau Nai Keung, the Assistant Commander of the Yuen Long Police District, was transferred to the New Territories North Criminal Investigation Department — the commander involved in handling the attack became the person in charge of the investigation into whether the police made any mistake in the incident. At the end of December 2019, Kelvin Kong, Senior Superintendent of Police Public Relations Branch, “not speaking of behalf of the Hong Kong Police Force”, claimed that someone brought protesters to Yuen Long Station that “led to the whole incident”. In March 2020, Chris Tang, Commissioner of Police, said, “There were mobs beating people up on the afternoon of July 21” and “some mobs also beat people up on the train”. The report published by the Independent Police Complaints Council in May even completely distorted the truth, stating that the incident was a conflict between the men in black and those in white.

As someone who personally experienced the 7.21 Attack, Lau thought he had to stop the distortion of history. In April 2020, he published a Facebook post looking for witnesses. Having received hundreds of emails within a few days, he picked around 40 of them to have thorough face-to-face and phone interviews. Apart from the witnesses on the train, at the platform and the lobby of the Yuen Long Station at that time, interviewees also included residents who were in Kai Tei long before the attack happened, those who were still in Ying Lung Wai and Nam Bin Wai in late night, someone who blended into the men in white and tried to find out what they were doing, as well as seniors of the walled villages and retired senior police officers.

From flaunting their power to actually attacking people, the gangsters received the message asking them to gather. Senior representatives of indigenous residents, district councillors, retired police officers all got the same news. “There would be 30 minutes (in Yuen Long Station) without any monitoring. They could do whatever they want.” With all the information he had, Lau firmly believed that the original plan was just “to gather all the gangsters to display their power in Kai Tei, beat up one or two scapegoats randomly, and then leave.” Therefore, he believed that it was an accident that the gangsters in white attacked citizens on the platform including himself. The violence was unexpected.

Three triggers leading to the violent attacks

Lau summarized three events that triggered the unexpected violence. 

At 9:50pm, a chef was brutally beaten up by the gangsters in white on Fung Yau Street, North Yuen Long, which directed people’s attention to Yuen Long and some tried to gather citizens in Yuen Long to support the injured. 

Second, around 11pm, there was confrontation between the gangsters in white outside the gates in Yuen Long Station and the citizens inside the paid area. “It was unexpected that there would be news live-streaming, legislative council members and citizens resisting.” 

Third, at midnight, a gangster leader suddenly had a heart attack while chasing and beating up the citizens. “It was the turning point. The situation became uncontrollable after that.” He later found that many gangsters in white didn’t even know who this boss was but it became an excuse for the mobs to attack people indiscriminately while yelling, ‘Revenge!’ I was attacked during this revenge.”

Lau watched the live-streaming videos of the day repeatedly and focused on the gangsters’ facial expressions. “I could tell from the facial expressions of many of them that they thought, ‘Shit. It’s losing control.’ I am not talking about the victims but the gangsters in white and the police there.” He saw some of the gangsters in white on the platform trying to stop others charging into the trains and beating passengers up, but they failed. “Those who tried to stop them should be their leaders.” He thought the mindset of the gangsters was the later it got, the more uncontrollable they would be and they would follow whoever started the conflict.

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There was no police in Yuen Long for almost 5 hours on that day.

The report by IPCC pointed out that the police vehicles passed by Fung Yau Street North many times that night, but they did not observe any acts involving disturbance or any crimes, and thus did not take any action. Lau criticized that even if they did not notice any illegal activity at the scene, they could have gotten out of their cars and checked things out when the gangsters gathered. “But they did nothing. They did not even turn on the siren. I dare not say that the police was involved in the planning of the incident, but their failure to act catalyzed the incident and worsened the situation. Such failure to act is very illogical and did not meet the usual standard of duty by the police.”

Police officers defied orders from the district office

According to the IPCC report, at 11:25pm that day, the Yuen Long Police District control room instructed the Tactical Unit to patrol around the Station in a high-profile manner. However, the Force did not act as instructed but instead gathered at Yuen Long Fire Station and had an urgent briefing on their strategies. The briefing ended at 00:16am. “These teams went against the orders from the district office openly. Why? The IPCC didn’t explain it......” People also discovered the commander in charge of the operation that night had a close relationship with the gangsters in Yuen Long, “Are all these mere coincidences?”

Different versions of the incident circulated — which gangs were involved in the incident? According to the information Lau collected, most of the gangsters in white were from the gangs based in Yuen Long. Quite a few of them were from Tuen Mun. Someone familiar with gangs noted that among the gangsters in white, there were members from rival gangs, “which means that they were under the command of someone more senior.”

“I dare not say the Central Government Liaison Office instructed them to do so… the National Security Law is now in place. Yet, they have a role in this.” In mid-July 2019, Li Ji-yi, the director of the New Territories Office of the Liaison Office, said openly that he hoped that the villagers who loved the country and Hong Kong would not let mobs enter Yuen Long to create chaos. Lau, who had been a journalist responsible for China news in TVB for many years, said that gangsters were often recruited to help manage society and execute certain jobs in mainland China. “Did the government choose not to intervene in the incident because the Liaison Office said so? It’s hard to say that there’s a direct causal relationship. But when the Liaison Office said so and how the police behaved also supported this narrative, doubts are raised. Was the police working closely with the Liaison Office? Did they communicate with each other? If so, was it inappropriate to do so? If not, why was it like that?”

According to Lau, there are a number of leaders in every village in New Territories West. Their organizational structures are unstable and conflicts happen from time to time. Therefore, the Liaison Office may have to find an official agent to manage them. “They have a suitable candidate now. Everyone saw it. He came and shook hands with them.”

There are seven chapters in his new book, of which the first two chapters discuss the background and underlying reasons behind the attack while the other five chapters reconstruct what happened on 21 July. “You can see that many of the gangsters in white are in their middle age. If they were younger, the attack may not have happened.” The heading of Chapter 2 is “The danger gangsters face in their middle age”.

The background of the gangs in New Territories can be traced back to the Small House Policy introduced in 1970s.

Yau Nai Keung, the then Assistant Commander of the Yuen Long Police District, arrived at the scene at late night. He told the journalists he did not see anyone possessing any offensive weapons. Yet, Lau was more impressed by how panicked Yau was when he arrived, “I noticed that he did not know what to say for a few minutes and decided to fight back when he was blamed.” 

Doesn’t make sense— the inaction of the police

“The police should take the most responsibility.” Did the police know what the gangsters in white were going to do in advance? Were they involved in the planning? “I can’t say that. I can only say that some gangsters got the message saying that they would have 30 minutes without any monitoring, and there was a strange coincidence — the police arrived 39 minutes later.” The police explained at a press conference that the police officers who arrived at Yuen Long Station first on 21 July found that the situation was not under control, and thus decided to leave the scene and ask for support. The riot police arrived at Yuen Long Station 39 minutes after they received the reports. 

Yet, earlier at noon that day, district council members already reported to the police that there were rumours of gangsters gathering for actions. The police stated that they had already arranged manpower for that. From 6:30pm that night, a crowd of gangsters in white gathered in Fung Yau Street North with rattan sticks and wooden bats, and this was when the chef [insert link] was beaten up. At 10:48pm, the gangsters walked into Yuen Long Station and attacked citizens indiscriminately. This continued until 11:15pm, when police officers were sent in high profile to the scene.

Tam Yuen Yan: the Small House Right and the interests of West Rail Line 

When the economy flourished in the 80s, meeting the residential demands of the indigenous people turned into a fight for the Small House Right. Those who grew up in the 80s enjoyed a lot of benefits because of the Small House Policy. “They were only in their 20s at the time. They would be satisfied simply with having money. Maybe it was enough for them to open a bar in Yuen Long when they were 30. When they reach 40, some of their buddies became the representatives of the villages while some were involved in coordinating elections. Do the Chinese Government value them? There are exchange tours in villages from time to time. Maybe I can also have these connections too? I don’t want to be a gangster forever.”

After the handover in 1997, the politics in the villages surfaced in public. Lau learnt that before the handover, the British colonial government had an unwritten rule— the gangs could not interfere with the Rural Committee Elections. Yet, after the handover, the government does not care about it anymore. “Basically all the rural committees from the 6 villages in Yuen Long have connections with the gangs. A seat in the Rural Committee also means a seat in the District Council and Fight Crime Committee of your district. It’s ironic that gangs have seats in Fight Crime Committee. 

Besides, there was also an unwritten rule in the police force before the handover: a police officer could not work in the village where he/she was born. “Yet, in this attack, some senior police officers involved were born in Yuen Long. They grew up with gangs. That’s why it is disturbing.” Lau thought the government definitely bears responsibility and is capable of preventing people with ties to the gangs from entering the systems of rural politics and the police force.

Regarding the share of interests in the railway development, Lau explained why there were conflicts in New Territories West but not in the East. This is because the East Rail Line was developed much earlier. “The stakeholders received their own shares of interests already.” Yet, the West Rail Line was only in use from December 2003 and the Rail Line is exactly where the interests lie. “To be honest, the government should have managed the interests of both the gangs and non-gang parties during the planning of the railway, instead of sitting there and doing nothing.” 

The moment of the attack on him 

On 21 July, Lau was watching news live-streaming at home. After he learnt that the gangsters in white attacked passersby indiscriminately in Yuen Long Station, he volunteered to drive to Yuen Long Station to pick up citizens. He first drove 3 citizens to other West Railway stations and came back to Yuen Long Station again. Around 00:30am, the gangsters in white returned to Yuen Long Station. They lifted up the rolling gate and attacked the citizens inside the Station. Some of them chased after those who tried to flee to Yoho Mall. When Lau was running on the bridge connecting Yuen Long Station and Yoho Mall, he turned around and spotted a teenager being beaten up by more than 10 gangsters. He tried to stop the beating, but he ended up being beaten on his head by 5-6 gangsters with iron pipes. In the end, he got 8 stitches in his head.

After receiving basic first aid, Lau was interviewed by media on the scene. His eyes were brimmed with tears when he mentioned the teenager being beaten up, “No one could help him. He was surrounded and beaten up by more than 10 gangsters.”

When he recalled the scene, he said there was no choice but to go forward and try to help, “It was miserable that I was assaulted. But if I did not turn around, he could have died. I didn’t have a choice.” He remembered that they jumped on him for a long time. Have you ever thought that you might die? “No. When you stay focused while being beaten, you clearly know that your injuries are not fatal, unless the perpetrator uses a knife.”

Even though he was attacked, he still thought that some citizens at the scene were also responsible for the attack. He witnessed one or two citizens saying things to provoke the indigenous residents who did not watch the news and did not know what was happening at all. “Of course, they would think that you came to Yuen Long to create chaos.” Therefore, he found that some indigenous residents only joined the gangsters in white after they were provoked.

Storytelling as well as telling truth

He took off his mask when he was interviewed by us and this attracted the attention of everyone in the café. When he was still a journalist, everyone in the city still watched TVB news every night. Would he still be able to record the incident objectively? “I don’t think anyone has looked into the incident. I can only say that I have tried my best to get more information. When there are discrepancies between different pieces of information, I will look for other sources to verify them. I won’t write anything unverified in the book.” Although it was written in a story-telling format, he emphasized that every line is the truth.

According to Wikipedia, Lau is a Buddhist. He laughed and denied it. He said he only likes philosophy, either from the East or the West. In his book, there is a Buddhist quote, “Stay focused on one way.” Many think when the truth is right in front of you, there’s only one way. But he has also heard of another saying: Don’t see the world from a binary, black-or-white perspective. He believes in the latter. 

But isn’t your book about the absolute truth that evil will never beat the righteous? Is there only one truth? “There is not only my version of the truth. There are still many blanks to be filled. One villager did not watch the live-streaming on that night. When he walked out of the village, he saw a group of teenagers walk up, shouting at him. He felt those in black were creating chaos. This was also the truth he saw. If he did not find other evidence and make a judgement, this will forever be the truth in his eyes. He will stick with this truth till the very last moment of his life.”

Source: Ming Pao, Sunday’s Scene, June 2020

https://m.mingpao.com/pns/副刊/article/20200621/s00005/1592678124919/星期日現場-不容歷史遭扭曲-柳俊江出書重組7-21