The scene of the protest rally in Washington, though a day prior had experienced extremely intense conflicts where people carrying weapons fired at Riot Control Troops and accidentally injured bystanders, witnessed yet another large gathering of demonstrators. However, the number of participants was not as large as before, as many protesters feared the recurrence of casualties and quietly withdrew from the activity.
Bai Zhongqi only maintained a moderate level of attention on the global yet still ongoing protest activities because after the frenzy of these ethereal democrats, the Chancellor launched his counterattack.
The clear-out operation was merely a part of it, the Star Alliance government issued a harsh statement and condemnation, blaming the protesters for disregarding public safety and the interests of others, selfishly infringing on the interests of society and all citizens.
Under the influence of Bai Zhongqi, the Star Alliance's propaganda tools, major Star Alliance media, conducted extensive and detailed special coverage.
Take the "March on Washington" operation as an example, millions of protesters from all over the United States and even Canada entered Washington using completely free maglev trains, then with their citizen cards, drew their supplies directly and for free in Washington. Because of the sudden population surge in Washington, it also put some pressure on Washington's material supplies. Naturally, some residents living in Washington felt dissatisfied.
Star Alliance media specifically released a significant number of aerial drones that clearly captured the antics of the protesters on Washington's National Square. Leaving trash around, and even defecating and urinating in public not to mention, those who secretly carried weapons and opened fire on others in the square were also crisply captured by these drones.
The commentary in the news sharply pointed out, "…Regardless of how glamorous or even misleading their slogans are, they cannot cover up their ugly and shameless nature. The Star Alliance is a milestone in the history of Earth moving towards global unification, developing Earth's civilization, an important approach to solving hunger, poverty, and ecological issues of Earth. However, some saboteurs completely ignore the significant achievements made by the Star Alliance, disregard the tremendous efforts made by Earth citizens for the establishment of the Star Alliance, and the vast improvements in people's lives. They, acting on their own wishful thinking, attack other people and the Star Alliance government, and even willingly use violence, threatening the lives and safety of others. We have once again recognized the true faces of these anti-Star Alliance elements, they're not fighting for the rights of Star Alliance citizens but aiming to disrupt the lives of Star Alliance and its citizens. When a person's ideal comes at the expense of the lives and safety of the majority, we call such people villains, like historically known Hitler."
Bai Zhongqi, looking at the reports made by multiple Star Alliance media, could not help but smile slightly.
"These media still have some skills indeed," Líng also felt quite satisfied.
The official media of the Star Alliance obviously possessed more powerful channels and resources than the original Earth media, and had better coverage abilities. After pushing this round of public opinion aggressively, people also saw through these so-called advocates for the populace, who were more a group of pitiful clowns.
"...Abigail, born in Idaho, Lighthouse Country, currently 23 years old, a professional social activist, has been widely involved in various social activities since college. Abigail's interests not only involve environmental and political issues, but nearly all societal topics she has participated in. She is also a ****ist, and a frequent user of Da, having been hospitalized due to overdose. She was involved in credit card fraud and multiple offenses…"
"Zhang Guancong, born in Hong Kong and Kowloon, C-country, immigrated to the United Kingdom at the age of nineteen. In five years, he made over nine thousand posts maligning democracy and human rights in C-country, most of which were untrue. After the establishment of the Star Alliance, he long engaged in malicious acts against the reputation of the Star Alliance, had been warned multiple times, and faced several defamation charges from both the Star Alliance and the United Kingdom. He had hired cyberspace troops for malicious rumors in 2017, and the case is currently under trial, with Zhang Guancong himself on bail awaiting trial."
The personal information of some individual leaders of the protest activities was extensively reported by the news media, most of these individuals were relatively young, heavily involved in social activities, many of them not exactly clear of wrongdoing, even criminal offenses.
As a result, people's perception of these protesters plummeted significantly.
"...According to the latest disclosure from the Supreme Court of the Star Alliance, the Supreme Court along with the Star Alliance law enforcement agencies has arrested more than ten local political and business figures suspected of purposefully inciting and financing anti-Star Alliance individuals in protest activities. Many suspects have confessed to their crimes without denial, some hoped to force the Star Alliance to relinquish more power to local governments to obtain greater resources and power, facilitating opportunities for power renting and corruption. There are also business figures discontented with the universal social welfare policies of the Star Alliance, hoping to return to the capitalist era, squeezing the fundamental economic rights and labor of the vast citizenry to obtain unfair economic advantages."
This was Bai Zhongqi's second strategy, he knew very clearly to what extent various governments had participated in reactionary actions. Using every sort of electronic device from the Star Alliance, eventually, they were all under Bai Zhongqi's highest commands, hoping to plot the subversion of the Star Alliance without leaving any trace was impossible.
Bai Zhongqi was actually quite aware that the governments, especially those of major countries, had all participated in such activities to some extent, at the very least they condoned the actions of these protesters. Some individuals acted excessively, and it was easy to find legal methods to deal with them, but some governmental actions were more ambiguous, or simply not prosecutable purely from the perspective of law.
Bai Zhongqi did not need to fully chase them down, he merely needed to exert a certain deterrent effect.
The anti-Star Alliance activities that swept the globe started swiftly, but the public sentiment shifted just as quickly. Many people after seeing the true faces of the protesters, burst out from the silence, began to voice their opinions. Supporters of the Star Alliance quickly rallied together, some even started planning to confront these anti-Star Alliance folks in debates and contests.
The Star Alliance government initially mismanaged the situation, but once Bai Zhongqi personally spoke up to handle it, the momentum was suppressed. The Chancellor naturally was aware of the higher echelons' delayed awareness, and he wasn't particularly concerned with some dissatisfaction.
Representatives from the Iridium faction within the Star Alliance hierarchy, with Du Peng and Xiao Yu as leaders, had little emotional attachment to Earth itself, they didn't even consider a bit of chaos on Earth to be much of an issue. Representatives from Earth, both deliberately and inadvertently, were yet boosting the momentum of the protesters, scheming for their interests and adding fuel to the fire.