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President Trump Takes New Action Affirming Support for Hong Kong

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President Donald Trump signaled his support for the pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong on Wednesday as he signed the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” into law.

“Today, I have signed into law S. 1838, the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” (the “Act”),” Trump said in a statement. “The Act reaffirms and amends the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, specifies United States policy towards Hong Kong, and directs assessment of the political developments in Hong Kong.”

The law allows U.S. officials to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who are accused of committing human rights abuses in Hong Kong, Politico reported, adding that the law requires “the secretary of State to certify at least once a year whether Hong Kong continues to have enough control over its own affairs to warrant maintaining its special trade status under U.S. law.”

“Certain provisions of the Act would interfere with the exercise of the President’s constitutional authority to state the foreign policy of the United States,” Trump added. “My Administration will treat each of the provisions of the Act consistently with the President’s constitutional authorities with respect to foreign relations.”

“I signed these bills out of respect for President Xi, China, and the people of Hong Kong,” Trump said. “They are being enacted in the hope that Leaders and Representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to amicably settle their differences leading to long term peace and prosperity for all.” (Read more from “President Trump Takes New Action Affirming Support for Hong Kong” HERE)

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Hong Kong Democracy Camp Heads for Stunning Win at Polls

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Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp was headed for a thumping victory in district council elections, local media reported on Monday, a vote widely seen as a referendum on the Beijing-backed government’s handling of months of violent political unrest.

Counting was still under way following record turnout in Sunday’s ballot, but early tallies suggested that candidates favouring calls for greater democracy were set to grab far more of the 452 seats contested than originally expected, media reports said.

The selection of councillors — handling community-level concerns such as bus routes and garbage collection — traditionally generates little excitement, but pro-democracy forces hope a victory would raise pressure on the government to heed demands for change.

Hong Kong has endured months of mass rallies and violent clashes pitting police against protesters agitating for direct popular elections and a probe into alleged security force brutality against demonstrators, among other demands. . .

Hong Kong’s election watchdog said about 71 percent of the 4.13 million citizens registered to vote had cast their ballots, far higher than the 47 percent who voted in the previous go-round in 2015, which was a record at the time. (Read more from “Hong Kong Democracy Camp Heads for Stunning Win at Polls” HERE)

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Chinese President Has Chilling, Dire Warning for Hong Kong Protesters (VIDEO)

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As street battles between protesters and police continue to escalate in Hong Kong, China’s authoritarian leader warned Sunday any further attempt to divide the country will literally be crushed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made the comments during a visit to Nepal, where he became the first Chinese president in more than two decades to visit the country.

“Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones,” he told Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported. “And any external forces backing such attempts dividing China will be deemed by the Chinese people as pipe-dreaming!”

Xi made the explicit comments at a meeting where the two signed more than 20 agreements Sunday, including one commissioning a feasibility study of a China-Nepal cross-border railway project. The railway construction is being considered under an ambitious project that’s a component of China’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. . .

China has seen growing international pressure due to the escalating Hong Kong pro-democracy protests during the last four months. The demonstrations began in June over a contested extradition bill and have snowballed into a wide-ranging anti-government, anti-police and anti-China movement. (Read more from “Chinese President Has Chilling, Dire Warning for Hong Kong Protesters” HERE)

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Over 100 Injured, 200 Arrested in Hong Kong Protests on China’s National Day (VIDEO)

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Over 100 people were injured and police arrested nearly 200 during demonstrations in Hong Kong on Tuesday against China’s celebration of its 70th anniversary as a communist state.

A Hong Kong Hospital Authority spokesperson confirmed to local public broadcaster RTHK that, as of Wednesday morning, 104 people had been hospitalized for injuries sustained during yesterday’s protests.

Those wounded included 81 men and 23 women, 29 of whom are now in stable condition. Two men remain in a critical condition and are receiving treatment at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital and Ruttonjee Hospital. Another 71 people have already been discharged.

The shocking number of injuries came as police announced that 269 people were arrested during the demonstration. Deputy Police Commissioner Tang Ping-Keung confirmed at a press briefing on Wednesday that 30 police officers were among the injured, blaming protesters for allegedly attacking them.

In a separate press briefing, Police Commissioner Stephen Lo said that the suspects were arrested on charges including rioting, unlawful assembly, possession of offensive weapons, and assaulting police officers. He added that it was “one of the most violent, chaotic days in the history of Hong Kong.”

(Read more from “Over 100 Injured, 200 Arrested in Hong Kong Protests on China’s National Day” HERE)

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Watch: Hong Kong Police Teargas Peaceful Shoppers Without Warning

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By PJ Media. Former Hong Kong Parliamentarian Ray Chan reports on what looks like a nearly random teargas attack by local police, on people who weren’t even protesting. Chan tweeted on Sunday that the attack took place “in the heart of #HongKong’s shopping, district, Causeway Bay, there were no protesters, just reporters, shoppers & bystanders.” Erin Hale, a freelance journalist and Hong Kong correspondent for the German Press Agency confirmed to Chan that “no warnings had been given” by police before firing.

. . .

But it’s this last item that really must give Beijing the night sweats.

(Read more from “Watch: Hong Kong Police Teargas Peaceful Shoppers Without Warning” HERE)

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Avoid Irresponsible Remarks on Hong Kong, China Warns UK MPs

By The Guardian. China’s ambassador to the UK has accused British politicians of exhibiting a “colonial mindset” when they express support for demonstrators in Hong Kong or raise concerns about Huawei or freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

Liu Xiaoming said British MPs were free to express their opinion about the Hong Kong crisis but needed to recognise there were limits. Critical comments were not a problem “as long as you do not interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs,” he said.

At the same briefing, China’s military attache in the UK, Maj Gen Su Guanghui, said the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier or any other British warship could face an armed response if it sailed through disputed waters in the South China Sea.

Liu said some UK politicians “still have a colonial mindset” and argued it was a problem if they made “irresponsible remarks to show support” for what he described as “demonstrators and rioters” in Hong Kong. (Read more from “Avoid Irresponsible Remarks on Hong Kong, China Warns UK MPs” HERE)

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After Months of Protests, Hong Kong’s Leader Finally Scraps Undemocratic Bill That Would Have Extradited Residents to Mainland China

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Following months of protests, the leader of Hong Kong has agreed to scrap a bill that would have allowed residents of the former British territory to be extradited to mainland China to stand trial.

Here’s what we know

Carrie Lam, the leader of Hong Kong appointed by the Chinese government, announced the decision on Wednesday.

“We must find ways to address the discontent in society and look for solutions,” Lam said on Wednesday, according to CNN. “After more than two months of social unrest, it is obvious to many that this discontentment extends far beyond the bill.”

Before this, the government of Hong Kong had shelved the bill, but had refused to get rid of it entirely. More than one million of the city’s roughly 7.2 million inhabitants had participated in protests over this issue.

Since Hong Kong was returned to China by the United Kingdom in 1997, it has seen some of its freedoms slowly chipped away. China had promised to utilize a “one country, two systems” model of governance for Hong Kong for at least the first fifty years, in order to ease the transition, but has periodically put laws in place to bring Hong Kong more into line with Chinese rule.

This extradition bill was just the latest example of this type of anti-democratic change. The people of Hong Kong feared that the Chinese government would use it to make opposition leaders disappear.

It is not unreasonable for the people of Hong Kong to fear this outcome. Over the past few years, China has rounded up more than one million of its own people who belonged to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and placed them in re-education camps.

Olivia Enos, the senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, called Lam’s decision to withdraw the bill “an unmitigated win for protesters.”

“Unlike her previous declaration that the bill was dead, but it still technically remained in play, there is not threat of the bill resurfacing,” Enos told Blaze Media. She said that the bill had “posed an existential threat to freedom in Hong Kong.”

The government refused to budge on any other demands

In addition to getting rid of the extradition bill permanently, the protesters had also demanded reforms in Hong Kong including free elections and a halt to the prosecution of the more than 1,000 protesters who had been arrested (a demand Lam called “contrary to the rule of law”), as well as the creation of an independent commission that would investigate the city’s police department.

The protesters had also demanded that the government stop referring to them as “rioters,” but Lam dismissed this idea, saying that there was “no legal effect on how such incidents are described or categorized.”

Lam specified in her address on Wednesday that the government would not budge on any of these four additional issues. She urged the protesters to disband now that the extradition bill was gone, saying, “Let’s replace conflicts with conversations, and let’s look for solutions.”

(For more from the author of “After Months of Protests, Hong Kong’s Leader Finally Scraps Undemocratic Bill That Would Have Extradited Residents to Mainland China” please click HERE)

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Hong Kong Police Used so Much Tear Gas Journalists Coughed Blood

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Researchers surveying the journalists covering the ongoing Hong Kong protest movement found that upwards of 90 percent of journalists covering the July 28 protest suffered health effects such as difficulty breathing and coughing blood when police fired liberal amounts of tear gas at the crowds, the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) reported Friday.

“The research figures show the widespread use of tear gas by police poses a real threat to public health,” Wong Cheuk-pang, one of the researchers who led the study into effects of police use of tear gas on journalists, said at a press conference Friday, according to the HKFP.

The researchers reportedly interviewed over 170 journalists covering the protests about their health experiences following their presence at events where police used tear gas. “After police used tear gas on July 28 in Sheung Wan, 96.2 percent of respondents said they had difficulty breathing, persistent coughing or coughed up blood,” the HKFP noted. A majority (72.6 percent) said they developed rashes and other skin issues following their presence there. Some said they experienced second-degree burns. At least one person developed pneumonia after being exposed to tear gas, the researchers said.

On the same day, in the suburbs of Yuen Long, police fired so much tear gas elderly residents of a nursing home, where someone had accidentally left a window open, filmed the tear gas entering the building and hurting the residents, sparking outrage online. No evidence has surfaced linking the affected in the nursing home to the protest movement.

Journalists documenting the protests – whose participants have been largely peaceful, while Hong Kong police have attacked with tear gas and pepper spray and masked mobs have beaten them with sticks – have endured significant assaults while present for the events. During the first pro-China mob attack, in Yuen Long in July, the South China Morning Post reported that at least four journalists received beatings for attempting to cover the assault. (Read more from “Hong Kong Police Used so Much Tear Gas Journalists Coughed Blood” HERE)

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Video: Car Rams Through Hong Kong Protesters

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A driver believed to be injured and refusing help from the crowd rammed through an improvised blockade in Yuen Long, Hong Kong, on Monday, hitting protesters standing on the other side.

The incident occurred during one of at least eight official protests organized against the Communist Party of China on Monday and a call for a general strike that left mass transit systems and the Hong Kong airport largely inoperable.

The protesters have presented a list of five demands to the Hong Kong government intended to safeguard the longstanding democratic tradition of the region, among them a call for universal suffrage. Currently, a direct vote only covers half the seats in the Legislative Council (LegCo), leaving the other half to regional special interests. . .

The Asian outlet Coconuts reported that the car in question, apparently a minivan model, boasted spray paint on its side reading “murderer” in Chinese. It is not clear at press time how the man’s car came to have that graffiti on it, though protesters on the scene indicated through Telegram that the man had an “altercation” with the protesters before driving into them. The nature of that alleged altercation also remains uncertain.

The Guardian reported that, according to individuals present, the driver was injured and refused help from the protesters, who offered to call medical services for him. Police confirmed only one person injured from the incident but did verify that video of the incident aligned with the reports they received. (Read more from “Video: Car Rams Through Hong Kong Protesters” HERE)

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Why Hong Kong Protesters Wave the American Flag

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. . .Since starting their demonstrations seven weeks ago against a controversial extradition bill that threatened to undermine the city-state’s democracy, the protesters in Hong Kong have raised many different flags to represent their cause. Often times those are variants of the flag of the city-state — a stylized, white five-petal flower from the Hong Kong orchid tree on a red background. One commonly used variant is the same flag but with wilted petals behind a black background, threatening imagery of democracy under attack.

But on rare occasions, the protesters raised the Star-Spangled Banner while marching through the streets of Hong Kong.

The Hongkongers are raising the Stars-and-Stripes to appeal to the United States to take action, according to a few of the flag-carriers.

One person carrying the U.S. flag interviewed by Asia Times noted that he wants to “urge the U.S. Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act as soon as possible.” The proposed legislation, if passed, will impose sanctions on individuals from the mainland and the city-state who violated human rights and require the U.S. government to annually review whether Hong Kong is democratic enough to merit lucrative U.S. trade privileges not afforded to the rest of China. . .

The protester allegedly said he wants to wave the U.S. flag — an act sure to infuriate the Chinese government already irritated by the protracted demonstration in Hong Kong — to invite a Chinese military crackdown that will hopefully provoke the United States into taking more concrete action. (Read more from “Why Hong Kong Protesters Wave the American Flag” HERE)

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Watch: Dramatic Footage as CNN Crew Is Caught Between Police and Protesters in Violent Clash

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A CNN crew [was] covering the ongoing Hong Kong protests, which have more than once proved violent over the months. On Friday, thousands took over an airport, clad in black, and tensions escalated quickly.

CNN correspondent Anna Coren was on scene at the airport, clad in protective gear, when fears of violence turned to the reality of it, and she and her crew were right in the middle. . .

“Let me tell you what is happening. We have just been charged by riot police, up the escalator, into the train station, this is absolute mayhem,” she said. “They have just come at the protesters, wielding batons, spraying pepper spray. It is pandemonium inside here.”

“I have no idea how they are planning to disperse these crowds. It is absolute chaos,” she said. “Absolutely chaotic scene. I have never witnessed anything quite like this, where there was a peaceful, peaceful demonstration inside. These protesters, they are not trashing anything, all they were doing is standing here. They were being pushed on. Then all of sudden these riot police charged.”

Dramatic footage, dramatic description, and a months-long environment of dozens more such scenes as the pro-democracy protests continue to result in confrontations with authorities in Hong Kong.

(Read more from “Watch: Dramatic Footage as CNN Crew Is Caught Between Police and Protesters in Violent Clash” HERE)

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