Thousands of protesters rallied at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong calling for President Trump to “liberate” the city. The protesters waved American flags and sang the Star-Spangled Banner.
According to Reuters, after the rally at the U.S. Consulate, protests turned violent. Demonstrators set barricades, started fires, smashed windows and vandalized the train station in the Central District of Hong Kong. Police then fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Last week, Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam formally withdrew the extradition bill that sparked the months-long protests. The extradition bill would have allowed fugitives and suspects to be extradited and put on trial in mainland China.
At the U.S. consulate, some protesters were carrying signs that read, “Support the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.”
H.R.3289 – Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 was introduced in June by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ). This version has no summary yet, but a 2016 version of the bill was introduced by Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
The basic idea of the bill would be to reaffirm the United States-Hong Kong Act of 1992. The 1992 act was passed to affirm that the U.S. would treat Hong Kong separately from mainland China over matters of trade and economics after the British hand Hong Kong back to the Chinese, which happened in 1997. The bill would also require the Secretary of State to make an annual report on the autonomy of Hong Kong. If Beijing encroaches autonomy, the U.S. will sanction those officials involved.
On Thursday, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said legislation supporting the protesters in Hong Kong will be a priority for Congress when they return from recess next week. “We must take action to demonstrate to President Xi that the United States Senate stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong,” Schumer said in a statement.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper urged the Chinese government to exercise caution and show restraint over the protests in Hong Kong.
Since the beginning of the protests, Beijing has accused the U.S. of being involved. Although protestors waving American flags does not prove U.S. government intervention, the U.S. Congress-funded non-profit National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has had a presence in Hong Kong for many years.
In 2018, the NED had programs in Hong Kong titled, “Expanding Worker Rights and Democracy,” “Promoting Engagement of Fundamental Rights,” and “Strengthening Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Protection.”
This is an extremely weak and disappointing article for a noninterventionist site.
The so-called “Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” is blatant interference in the affairs of another sovereign nation. No Ron Paul libertarian, a view Mr. DeCamp has expressed sympathy with when discussing the greater Middle East, would let that pass without comment and exposure.
There are many other examples of blatant interference in the affairs of Hong Kong besides the ones cited by Mr. DeCamp.
Noninterventionism should not apply any less to China than to the Muslim world.
Smashing up shops, offices and other business has nothing to do with democracy whatever. It’s pure vandalism and hooliganism. No government in the world would allow this and capitulate to thuggery and criminals.
“No government in the world would allow this and capitulate to thuggery and criminals other than its own.”
Fixed, no charge.
This article does a good job describing the US ties which allow the demonstrations to benefit from the full US regime change knowhow.
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/17/hong-kong-protest-washington-nativism-violence/
Maybe a bit too much emphasis on the ties with US since there is also
– legitimate grieves about the economical decline of Hong Kong and the power of the land owners.
– anti-immigrant sentiments within the population, directed against China. One may not approve but in general such attitude have some legitimacy. It is a form of selfishness.
– local political power players with anti-China agenda.
– redirection of legitimate grieves in the population towards an anti-China attitude.
In terms of how the immediate conflict is handled it is clear that the violence and destruction coming mostly from the side of the demonstraters and the Hong Kong police is showing a lot of restraint.
They haven’t killed anyone yet.
BTW Everyone who follows this closely seems to take a lot of their views from Carl Zha now, who is really excellent (he avoids very well to present this as a case of pure foreign intervention) but there is room for diversification.
Hong Kong is in China. That is the inescapable reality. Hong Kong will not return to its semi-colonial status.
Every Chinese child outside Hong Kong knows exactly what the UK, France, Germany, the US, and Japan did to China. No Chinese child outside Hong Kong can have any sympathy for these beggars.
I think the protests are organic and I have no sympathy for the Beijing government but there’s clearly interventionist behavior from US NGOs if not the US government directly. The US regime doesn’t give a shit about freedom. The MIC and their cronies in Silicon Valley are basically adopting a version of the social credit system that’s been introduced in mainland China by the tyrannical government in Beijing. The future of Hong Kong lies with Hong Kong alone.
Listen and learn: https://aroundtheempire.libsyn.com/ep-119-hong-kong-protests-reality-feat-carl-zha
Any group of “revolutionaries” who fly the American flag has automatically lost my respect.
you should really correct this part: “The extradition bill would have
allowed fugitives and suspects to be extradited and put on trial in
mainland China.”
that should include Macau and Taiwan! it was for the three of them, including China mainland. please get it straight. And the bill was totally standard by world-wide standards.
The whole initial point of that extradiction thing was to send a man who murdered his girlfriend while on vacation in Taiwan back to Taiwan for prosecution
I also suspect that the mainland would use it in its current anti-corruption campaigns, hence the opposition by all the billionaires in Hong Kong, a total infestation