Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
July 27, 2019
The U.S. Stunt In Hong Kong Will Make Other Issues More Difficult

The current attempt of a U.S. instigated color revolution in Hong Kong is failing:

Protesters wearing all black streamed through the Yuen Long area, even though police refused to grant permission for the march, citing risks of confrontations between demonstrators and local residents.

By nightfall, protesters and police were once again facing off in the streets, as they've done previously during the summer-long pro-democracy protests in the Chinese territory. Demonstrators threw objects and ducked behind makeshift shields, and police officers shot plumes of tear gas into the air.

In May the chief organizer of the demonstrations met with U.S. leaders:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Hong Kong pro-democracy leader Martin Lee on Thursday, the State Department said, as Hong Kong activists seek to derail a proposed extradition law pushed by Beijing.

“Secretary Pompeo expressed concern about the Hong Kong government’s proposed amendments to the Fugitive Ordinance law, which threaten Hong Kong’s rule of law,” the department said in a statement.

Lee founded the first pro-democracy party in Hong Kong in 1990 and has been a prominent voice calling for civil liberties for the city’s residents.

Lee and other U.S. stooges organized large demonstrations against an extradition bill which would allow the government to send people who committed crimes in mainland China, Taiwan and Macau to those provinces where the crime was committed to receive their punishment. Hong Kong already has similar agreements with foreign countries.

Since then the government of Hong Kong temporarily pulled the bill back. The protest movement immediately diminished. But a core of black-clad students, influenced by the U.S. paid leaders, is trying to keep the struggle up. Throughout the last weeks they broke into the parliament building and ransacked it. They defiled family graves or pro-Chinese politicians, attacked police lines, harassed elderly arrivals (vid) at Hong Kong's airport and today, during an illegal demonstration, destroyed a car which they falsely believed to have a Chinese mainland owner.

Their aims are clearly unachievable and racist nonsense:

Carl Zha @CarlZha – 18:59 UTC · Jul 26, 2019

A Hong Kong protester besiege the old man at Hong Kong Airport helpfully hold up sign “Hong Kong Revolution, Chinese NOT Welcome, Taiwan Independence, Kick Out All Chinese”

Just in case you are not clear what the protest is about

Such behavior and slogans will only diminish the popular support they might have received otherwise.

That the U.S. is behind these riots can also be seen in the slanted coverage the riots receive in 'western' media. The picture they draw is incomplete:

Unable to defeat the bill legislatively, Hong Kong's pro-Western opposition has taken to the streets. With the help of Western media spin – the illusion of popular opposition to the extradition bill and Beijing's growing influence over Hong Kong is created.

What is not only omitted – but actively denied – is the fact that the opposition's core leaders, parties, organizations, and media operations are all tied directly to Washington DC via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and corporate foundations like Open Society Foundation.

Hong Kong has 7.5 million inhabitants. While demonstrations of several ten thousands seems big, they does not represent a majority. The so called 'pro-democracy' parties in Hong Kong have lost in each and every local election. The pro-China parties always receive a majority of votes.

Hong Kong was once the exclusive 'door to China'. It lost that status when China opened up for trade. Today a number of much larger cities within the mainland are way richer and more important. Hong Kong has little influence on what happens elsewhere in China. The temporary special status it received after Britain's colonial rule is of little concern. Most people in Hong Kong recognize that. They know that their economic well being now depends on Beijing's good will.

The U.S. may believe that the circus it creates with these student stunts might push China into doing something harsh. But the mainland is not concerned about such nonsense. It already knows how this will end:

“Trying to seize the opportunity to incite chaos in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region does not have popular support and will not be successful,” [Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang] said.

The students who were instigated to commit violence and crimes will go to jail. The extradition bill will be reintroduced at a convenient time and pass Hong Kong's legislative council with a large majority.

As that outcome was totally predictable one wonders why the Trump administration bothered to launch such nonsense. It will only make it more difficult to solve other problems, like North Korea or global trade, over which China has influence.

Comments

donkeytale says:
Racism is what it is. It is overly abundant and fluorishing right along in lockstep goosestep with nationalism
but what exactly is it?
the so-called center-left here in Italy, like you, makes a lot of noise in favor of this new brand of Soros inspired open borders. of course these poor folks who pour into the country don’t congregate under the windows of the enlightened class, but rather in ghettoes and shanty towns on the peripheries from where they can panhandle or pick tomatoes twelve hours a day for a few euro.
as such, the enlightened class of globalist, neoliberal, pro-war shitheads, always feigning humanitarian concerns, decry racism while synchronously advocating a new serfdom…and keep buying tomatoes on the cheap.
meanwhile, maligned by many as fascist and racist, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is trying to secure his borders, restore rule-of-law, assuage chronic youth unemployment, and cut taxes in a country that’s been governed poorly for decades by all-too-familiar right/left connivance.

Posted by: john | Jul 30 2019 10:52 utc | 201

John – are you Italian? If not what privilege allowed you through the border? So, you decry the neoliberal pro war shitheads yet you also deny the victims of the pro war neoliberal shitheads all the while taking full personal advantage of neoliberalism for your own benefit?
Nice, John

Posted by: donkeytale | Jul 30 2019 11:11 utc | 202

“John, you’re one of us! You are part of the evil empire! Embrace your inner villain like we imperial tools do!”
Just know that once you take that step, John, you will forever require Xanax in order to simulate peace of mind.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 30 2019 11:31 utc | 203

donkeytale says:
So, you decry the neoliberal pro war shitheads yet you also deny the victims of the pro war neoliberal shitheads all the while taking full personal advantage of neoliberalism for your own benefit
no doubt this kind of presumptuousness and pretzel logic served you well as a sexual predator, n’est-ce pas?

Posted by: john | Jul 30 2019 12:42 utc | 204

John –
Just going by your own words. If you are native Italian then of course I’m being -somewhat- presumptuous.
But not regarding your lack of empathy for the political refugees caused by neoliberalism.
If I’m correct that you are not Italian by birth then it appears you are merely projecting your own pretzel logic onto me.

Posted by: donkeytale | Jul 30 2019 12:50 utc | 205

donkeytale says:
But not regarding your lack of empathy for the political refugees caused by neoliberalism
knowing pretty much NOTHING about me, i’d say your presuming upon my empathy in any measure for any one thing or another is fairly brazen…
…though as a (former?)sexual predator, i guess YOU would know something about lack of empathy.
bye-bye

Posted by: john | Jul 30 2019 13:47 utc | 206

Hong Kong ‘activists’ Joshua Wong, Benny Tai and Martin Lee honored and awarded by ‘Freedom House’ which is financed by National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and American corporate interests. (Legal origin of NED is U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915)
https://freedomhouse.org/event/75th-anniversary-special-event-honoring-three-generations-hong-kong-democracy-activists

Posted by: Rolf | Jul 30 2019 15:53 utc | 207

“Why Hong Kong’s Protesters Look To Ukraine”
“The Oscar-nominated 2015 documentary Winter on Fire, which is about the Maidan protests, has been one central discussion point for many Hong Kong protesters. With the documentary now available on Netflix, many are sharing their thoughts on it. Lee Ngao, the administrator of a Facebook page called Resistance Live Media that frequently shares updates related to the Hong Kong protests, recently promoted (link in Chinese) the documentary on his page. “Hong Kong protesters are interested in Maidan because it’s enlightening and educational for them,” said Lee. “It’s David vs. Goliath. Hong Kong protesters really admire those in Ukraine for their strategy and unwavering spirit of resistance.”
https://qz.com/1675353/why-ukrainians-are-closely-watching-hong-kongs-protests/

Posted by: jayc | Jul 30 2019 23:51 utc | 208

Apologies if this has been said higher up this very long thread. As a Brit who moved to HK before the yellow umbrella protests in 2014 , I was initially puzzled as to why, in the interests of political purity (the ability to select the candidates for Chief Executive as well as to vote for them), the people of Hong Kong chose to throw away the ability to do either? With those protests they lost the opportunity for universal suffrage so that the LegCo continues to be picked by a council of just 1200 people. In the days of colonial ‘rule’ this made sense, local representatives of the construction, Banking, hospitality industries etc got a form of block vote to make sure local business was represented. Even prior to handover in 1997 this was causing huge problems of corruption and crony capitalism and most of the legitimate protests that ordinary Hong Kong people have are down to the now mostly malign influence of the ruling property tycoons and their families. Because they control property, they control everything and even though taxes here are low, ‘the landlord tax’ is huge. Rents are obscene, yet quality of apartments is very poor, Hong Kong island electricity is much more expensive than the new territories, there are only two supermarket chains (competition is ruthlessly shut down) so prices for much but particularly western food is literally 5x the price of the exact same product in the UK. Setting up a restaurant, bar or coffee shop is really difficult as if you do well the landlord simply doubles your rent the next year. He probably wants you out anyway so he can put up another giant concrete and steel tower and fill it with name plate company offices for mainlanders. Meanwhile Li Ka Shing and his ilk have been taking money out of Hong Kong as quickly as they can, seeing Hong Kong as simply a rental cash cow. Go to Shanghai, Taipei or even, nay particularly, Shenzhen to see how they have transformed in the last 5 let alone 10 years as capital has been reinvested locally.
So with the 2014 protests there was an obvious answer to the question Cui Bono? The tycoons, they successfully kept ‘the peasants’ in their place and continued to extract rent from the hard working (and they really are hard working) people of Hong Kong. At the time there were strong suggestions that the triads (who control much of the New territories) were part of this process.
This time I am not so sure. Certainly the original protests ‘went viral’ if that is the right expression as people saw on social media the huge crowds building, they went and joined in. The one party two systems is an emotional touchstone here, very much like the NHS is Britain, but actual independence? Not so much. It worked, they made their point and Carrie Lam, a dull but until recently not disliked bureaucrat, backed down. Then came the ‘students’ in make shift riot gear and the largely hapless HK police were then pilloried either for not attacking or attacking too much. The fact that the western media were all over this says a lot (I have seen worse behaviour after football matches in the UK and certainly months of it in Paris) and I do not doubt that the US and their NGOs have been pushing this ‘to the max’ as they say because it suits their agenda. As to the boys and girls from Langley? Maybe, but if so I would point to a bigger agenda – and certainly a more likely source of the trouble making – Taiwan.
There are elections coming up in January in Taiwan and the existing government know that frightening the world – including their own people – about closer ties with China is their best chance of staying in power. Most people, and obviously the opposition favour closer ties with China. If the US is involved I would be willing to bet they are doing it via, and because of, the strategic importance of Taiwan. The lovely, charming and hard working people of Hong Kong are merely pawns in a bigger game.

Posted by: MarkT | Jul 31 2019 1:29 utc | 209

Thank you MarkT despite the lack of white space (put some breaks in that wall of text) yours is a comment that to me bears much more resemblance to reality than a lot else being said, although I disagree somewhat on details.
If there is significant foreign manipulation going on it will be known about by a lot of people in HK as well as Beijing of course. Beijing itself is certainly not above manipulating directly and using talk of other actors manipulating to excuse and absolve themselves.
The blame does lie with the tycoons (of all sorts) but both the UK, HK itself, and China all benefited enormously (and in China’s case still do) and far too much not to look the other way most of the time.
As an aside I’m having trouble believing the US will ever have any genuine clout in HK. It is very telling how so many HK expatriates felt Canada to be much more suitable (and now I see SCMP talk about people aiming for Portugal and Europe, not the US). The standard widespread British attitude towards the US is that they’re a bunch of retards and always were (hence the “special relationship”) and the people of HK would be more than simply aware of this point of view 🙂

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jul 31 2019 11:03 utc | 210

Thank you MarkT despite the lack of white space (put some breaks in that wall of text) yours is a comment that to me bears much more resemblance to reality than a lot else being said, although I disagree somewhat on details.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jul 31 2019 11:03 utc | 210

Wow! Grammar Nazi-ism is an insultingly feeble excuse for not bothering to read, and pretending not to comprehend, what MarkI wrote.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 31 2019 20:38 utc | 211

And in particular what would that be Hoarsewhisperer; what did I not read and what did I not comprehend?
Asking for paragraphs gets under your skin? Wow 🙂

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 1 2019 16:14 utc | 212

And what am I pretending not to comprehend if I didn’t read it? 😀

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 1 2019 16:30 utc | 213

Noname | Jul 28 2019 6:18 utc | 87

Proof Government & Cops Are Behind “Islamic Terror”
https://www.henrymakow.com/2019/07/Proof-Government-Cops-Are-Behind-Islamic-Terror.html
“>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf6aZCERrKo

WOW!! There you have cast-iron proof that the “terrorists” are government employees or stooges. Of course we have suspected this for ages and 7/7 proved it, but this case is something that could convince the most hardened sceptic of “Conspiracy Theories”.
Note also, how little publicity this case got in the media. This was the first time I had heard mention of it. In 2016 I used to read the Guardian and the Independent, but I am pretty certain that neither of them mentioned it.
Of course it is obvious that the ONLY people who benefit form “Terrorist” outrages are the “Security” Industry and the firms that supply them, but it seems that a lot of people cannot bring themselves to believe that their “own” governments are quite willing to blow them up or shoot them for their own financial/political gain.

Posted by: foolisholdman | Aug 2 2019 17:19 utc | 214

This is a disappointing and one-sided post. You paint all HK protestors as tools and fools. Does the US empire attempt to opportunistically shove its’ foot in every half open door? Sure, of course. We know this. That fact does not discredit the HK protest. And yet, you seem to think that it does and that you don’t have to show any other facts in order to invalidate a political protest. You should know that the life of a country is more complex than that. I expected more from you. You have a puppet-on-a-string view of the universe, which is a view you share with the CCP. They at least agree with you.

Posted by: Ed | Aug 5 2019 20:42 utc | 215

A lot of my friends and I have been discussing the Hong Kong protests and the Hong Kong and Chinese government reaction to the protests. Overall, we think the Chinese government has exercised tremendous restraint as the protesters continue to escalate their protests to more and more violent ends. We asked ourselves, “what would our government do to handle such a situation in one of the States? There are clear examples in recent US history when Reserve or National Guard units have been called in to prevent looting and violence (LA race riots, Hurricane Katrina, etc.). Our consensus is that there is huge mistrust among many of the people in Hong Kong that the Chinese government, once on the ground in Hong Kong, will use it as an excuse to leave a sizable element in place after protests/riots have been curbed. I use the words protests/riots because both are going on in Hong Kong right now. When police are attacked with lasers (eye damage), have bricks thrown at them, etc., these are no longer protesters, they are rioters and, as such, an elevated response is required to protect Hong Kong citizens, businesses, police, and what ever passes for the rule of law in Hong Kong. I think that the U.S. government shows tremendous bias when it does not openly condemn acts of violence committed by Hong Kong rioters as they protect people’s rights to peaceful protest in Hong Kong. Sadly, as I’m an American, it appears to me that the Chines government is acting much more responsibly than my own government. I hope people in Hong Kong can manage to reign in rioters and protest in a non-violent way that also honors the rights of Hong Kong residents that do not protest. From what I’ve seen and read, though, the situation is already out of control. If Chinese forces enter Hong Kong, I hope they state that they will all leave as soon as violent protests end. This tactic would be powerful for the Chinese government because it would be the opposite of what is expected. Also, if PLA forces used restraint in it’s own violence to stop rioting, it could be a powerful message to Hong Kong citizens that the mainland only desires violence and rioting to stop; that the rights of many Hong Kong citizens are being encroached upon when they can not travel (airport); when rioting/protests prevent ordinary logistical support to citizens (food, water, medicine, health care, travel to and from work). Non violent protests that do not encroach upon the rights of non participating citizens is clearly what Hong Kong protesters should be doing. However, I think the protests have gotten out of control of the people who organized them. I don’t think they can stop violent protests/rioters. My friends and I openly wonder, “what is the true red line that, when crossed, will cause China to intervene?”

Posted by: TA | Aug 17 2019 23:30 utc | 216