Hong Kong Protests and a U.S. Diplomat (Updated)
[Headlines from DRJ]
As Hong Kong braces for another weekend of protests “which began in June and have become increasingly violent:”
The protests began after Hong Kong’s government tried introducing an extradition bill that would have allowed defendants to be sent to the mainland for trial.
The bill has been suspended, but protesters have stepped up their demands and are now calling for greater democracy and [Hong Kong leader Carrie] Lam’s resignation.
The protests have been condemned by the central government in Beijing. China has also accused foreign powers of fueling the unrest.
Now the U.S. State Department has responded:
A US official has described China as a “thuggish regime” for disclosing personal details about a US diplomat who met student leaders involved in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
The denunciation came as the US became the latest country to issue a travel alert to the territory on Thursday, and Hong Kong’s police force brought out of retirement a senior officer who led the police response to the 2014 Occupy movement.
China’s Hong Kong office asked the US on Thursday to explain reports in Communist party-controlled media that American diplomats were in contact with leaders of protests that have convulsed Hong Kong for nine weeks.
U.S. officials suggested the diplomat and her family were targeted and/or doxxed for doing their job:
Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao published a photograph of a US diplomat, who it identified as Julie Eadeh of the consulate’s political section, talking to student leaders including Joshua Wong in the lobby of a luxury hotel.
The photograph appeared under the headline “Foreign Forces Intervene”, continuing a theme of previous protests from Beijing officials, who have blamed Hong Kong’s unrest on “black hands” from the US.
“I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children, I don’t think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,” state department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told a briefing late on Thursday. “That is not how a responsible nation would behave.”
“Black hands” is how China branded protesters before the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy uprising.
UPDATE 8/12/2019: Hong Kong airport grinds to halt; China likens protests to terrorism.
— DRJ
Meanwhile, back in Washington, there is another source of discontent for one former foreign service officer.
DRJ (15874d) — 8/10/2019 @ 3:31 amChuck Park is a very woke person, a sensitive soul seared by the cruel world of career diplomacy:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-can-no-longer-justify-being-a-part-of-trumps-complacent-state-so-im-resigning/2019/08/08/fed849e4-af14-11e9-8e77-03b30bc29f64_story.html
nk (dbc370) — 8/10/2019 @ 4:32 amChina is evil. Remember that when it comes to trade.
On the other side, Jeffrey Epstein is now dead and all those he could incriminate go free.
NJRob (4d595c) — 8/10/2019 @ 6:16 amAnd I’m certain that perhaps the first protest against the extradition law in Hong Kong was genuine, but the present ones are engineered by the Chinese government to give them the excuse to step in and impose totalitarian rule like the rest of China. From the beginning, Hong Kong was never going to be permitted to remain a semi-autonomous oblast, that’s not how the Chinese do things. There is only one sun in heaven and only one emperor in China.
nk (dbc370) — 8/10/2019 @ 6:20 amWhat? They killed him already?
nk (dbc370) — 8/10/2019 @ 6:21 amI agree that the PLA will intervene by the end of September. The 60th anniversary of founding of the PRC is October 1st, and the government cannot lose face with large protests in HK. The Chinese government showed no fear in doing so in Tiananmen Square in 1989. They will do what it takes to restore order.
Whoever believes the “one country, two systems” arrangement would last until 2047 is a fool.
Rip Murdock (fcacaf) — 8/10/2019 @ 8:25 amI updated the post.
DRJ (15874d) — 8/12/2019 @ 8:53 am