"Get those foreign agents outta town", roars a music video by a patriotic Chinese rap group, one of a slew of creative efforts by Beijing attacking Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement as violent and spurred on by overseas governments.

The rap video, overlaid with clips of protesters clashing with police and breaking into Hong Kong's legislative offices, is being shared by Chinese state media on its overseas and domestic social media accounts.

"Hey democracy! Once I heard you be found in the Middle East, people were throwing bombs across the city streets," runs the English-language rap by nationalistic Chinese group CD Rev.

"If that's what you want sorry I can't agree, get those foreign agents outta town then we can talk about it."

Eleven weeks of demonstrations have seen millions of people take to Hong Kong's streets in the biggest challenge to China's rule of the semi-autonomous city since its 1997 handover from Britain.

In turn, Beijing has intensified its rhetoric -- decrying the "terrorist-like" actions of a violent hardcore minority among protesters -- while accusing Western governments of inciting the pro-democracy rallies.

The CD Rev song also features a soundbite of US President Donald Trump saying "Hong Kong is a part of China".

Another video, which was shared by CCTV and China Daily, warned against the financial hub becoming a "paradise for violence".

"Girls screaming, shops smashed, are you still bragging about justice?" raps musician Gang Qilian, switching between Mandarin and Cantonese, the language spoken in Hong Kong.

- 'Remain silent' -

It is not the first time Beijing has used the arts or the popularity of rap music as a vehicle for propaganda.

In March China's official news agency, Xinhua, released a rap video to celebrate the annual meeting of the country's rubber-stamp parliament and top political advisory body.

And CD Rev previously worked with the Communist Youth League to release "This is China" -- a party-approved song bursting with national pride.

But state media upped the ante over the weekend with a poem that compared demonstrators to Nazis.

On Saturday, state broadcaster CCTV tweeted a post that was written in the style of a well-known poem by Martin Niemoller, an outspoken critic of Hitler.

"First they hurled bricks and iron barriers... and I did not speak out, because they were young and should be forgiven", read the online flyer that was titled: "Hong Kongers are you going to remain silent?".

"And then they came and attacked me, and there was no one left to speak for me and protect me."

Such brazen messaging may not yield the results desired by Beijing, however.

Beijing's propaganda campaign has been "relatively successful in persuading Western media that public opinion in mainland China is massively hostile to Hong Kong", said Sebastian Veg, a contemporary Chinese history and politics professor at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris.

But some of its propaganda is "bound to backfire", Veg told AFP, referring to CCTV's tweet.

"Such messaging will no doubt be seen as deeply repulsive [to] governments and public opinion in Europe and around the world and hardly endear them to Beijing's views," he said.

Trump warns Tiananmen-style HK crackdown would harm trade deal
Washington (AFP) Aug 19, 2019 - Donald Trump has warned China that carrying out a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy protests would harm trade talks between the two countries, in comments that followed a huge, defiant march through the streets of the global finance hub.

Hong Kong has been rocked by more than two months of protests and clashes between police and hardcore activists who fear the semi-autonomous city's freedoms are under threat from Beijing.

On Sunday, rally organizers said some 1.7 million people turned out for a peaceful march under a sea of umbrellas, defying police orders and stark warnings from China to end the protests.

The American president cautioned that any violent effort by China to quell the unprecedented protests would damage trade negotiations.

"I think it'd be very hard to deal if they do violence, I mean, if it's another Tiananmen Square," Trump told reporters in New Jersey on Sunday. "I think it's a very hard thing to do if there's violence."

Trump's comments came as Washington and Beijing look to revive pivotal high-level talks aimed at ending their trade war.

The trade dispute between the US and China has been blamed for setting world financial markets on edge amid signs of a possible global economic slowdown.

Phone calls between the deputies from two sides are planned for the next 10 days and, if those are successful, negotiations between more senior officials could resume, Trump's chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Sunday.

The demonstrations in Hong Kong have tipped into violence, with protesters paralyzing the city's airport last week and tarnishing a campaign that took pride in its peaceful intent.

Communist Party-ruled mainland China has in turn sharpened its tone towards the dissidents, decrying the "terrorist-like" actions of a violent minority.

State media has broadcast images of military personnel and armored personnel carriers in Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, propaganda read across Hong Kong as intimidation.

China deployed tanks to end student-led protests in the bloody 1989 crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, resulting in an estimated death toll between several hundred to over a thousand.

If such a situation was repeated in Hong Kong, "I think there'd be... tremendous political sentiment not to do something," Trump said, referring to the trade negotiations with China.

- Creeping authoritarianism -

Under a deal signed with Britain, China agreed to allow Hong Kong to keep its unique freedoms when the former crown colony was handed back in 1997.

But many Hong Kongers feel those freedoms are being hacked away, especially since China's hardline president Xi Jinping came to power.

Trump stopped short of endorsing the protesters, saying, "I'd love to see it worked out in a humane fashion," and calling on Xi to negotiate with the dissidents.

Last week, China's state-run daily the Global Times said there "won't be a repeat" of Tiananmen Square in a rare reference to the crackdown.

"China is much stronger and more mature, and its ability to manage complex situations has been greatly enhanced," the newspaper wrote in an editorial.

Analysts say any intervention in Hong Kong by Chinese security forces would be a disaster for China's reputation and economy.

The political turmoil was sparked by widespread opposition to a plan for allowing extraditions to the Chinese mainland, but has since morphed into a broader movement for democratic rights in the semi-autonomous city.

Sunday's march, billed as a return to the peaceful origins of the leaderless protest movement, was one of the largest rallies since the protests began about three months ago, according to organizers the Civil Human Rights Front.

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Ai Weiwei fears 'Tiananmen' crackdown in Hong Kong
Berlin (AFP) Aug 16, 2019
Watching the Hong Kong protests from afar, Chinese dissident-artist Ai Weiwei fears the worst, warning of a repeat of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing. "I don't think any prediction is too big," the 61-year-old told AFP in an interview in his Berlin studio. China "is a society which sacrifices anything to maintain its control," he warned. "In 1989, the whole world was watching and the tanks crushed the students, ... a peaceful demonstration." Ai's bleak warning comes after ... read more