Very fine Chinese people on both sides
by digby
Typically a president would call for restraint from the Chinese gov’t in such a tinderbox situation… but not this one. https://t.co/9NLQhzgGUm— Andrew Freedman (@afreedma) August 13, 2019
Even Moscow Mitch rose from the crypt to say more than that:
U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned China on Monday that any violent crackdown on protests in Hong Kong would be “completely unacceptable,” while Trump administration officials urged all sides to refrain from violence.
“The people of Hong Kong are bravely standing up to the Chinese Communist Party as Beijing tries to encroach on their autonomy and freedom,” McConnell wrote in tweet.
“Any violent crackdown would be completely unacceptable. … The world is watching.”
Increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong have plunged the Chinese-ruled territory into its most serious crisis in decades, presenting Chinese leader Xi Jinping with one of his biggest popular challenges and raising fears of direct intervention by Beijing.
Some Hong Kong legal experts say official descriptions of some protesters’ actions as terrorism could lead to the use of extensive anti-terror laws and powers against them.
China’s People’s Armed Police have also assembled in the neighboring city of Shenzhen for exercises, the Chinese state-backed Global Times newspaper said.
On Tuesday, China’s state media said an unidentified official with the Foreign Ministry office in Hong Kong denounced the “arrogance and biases of some U.S. politicians”, adding that McConnell’s remarks sent protesters a “seriously mistaken signal”.
Republican U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been seeking a major deal to correct trade imbalances with China, drew criticism this month after he described the Hong Kong protests as “riots” and said they were a matter for China and Hong Kong to deal with as the territory was part of China.
On Monday a senior Trump administration official and a State Department spokeswoman urged all sides to refrain from violence, while stressing support for democracy.
The senior official reiterated Trump’s remark that it was a matter between Hong Kong and China, “with the understanding that ‘they’re looking for democracy and I think most people want democracy.’
The protesters are flying American flags, probably assuming they would at least get some rhetorical support from the US.
This has nothing to do with money which is the only way Trump knows how to think about things. Unless he can frame a foreign policy issue as a country “taking advantage” of the US financially or a leader liking him personally because of his humungous hands, he has no words. He certainly doesn’t care if the Chinese government clamps down on Hong Kong. In fact, he almost surely supports it. He complimented the Chinese government for its crackdown in Tiananmen Square, after all.
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