Tag: Hong Kong

Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protestor Sentenced to 9 Years in First Trial Under the National Security Law

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A Hong Kong pro-democracy protestor was sentenced to nine years in prison in the first prosecution under the country’s new national security law, the Associated Press reported.

Tong Ying-ki was convicted Tuesday on charges of inciting secession and terrorism for allegedly driving his motorcycle into a group of police officers with a flag donning the banned slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” at a July rally in 2020, the AP reported. Tong pleaded not guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years and eight years respectively on Friday, which judges ruled could be served concurrently for 9 years.

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China Sanctions Former Top Trump Official, Six Others in Response to Hong Kong Actions

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Zhao Lijian

China sanctioned former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and six other U.S. individuals or entities in retaliation for human rights penalties levied against the Chinese government Friday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the sanctions were a response to the recent Hong Kong Business Advisory issued by the State Department earlier this month, which warned U.S. companies against engaging in business activity in Hong Kong due to a series of risks. On Friday, China accused the U.S. of engaging in behavior that “gravely” violates international law.

“I would like to stress once again that Hong Kong is China’s Special Administrative Region and its affairs are an integral part of China’s internal affairs,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a statement on Friday.

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Commentary: The U.S. Needs Measured Confrontation with China

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Policeman holding a rifle - in uniform

With the election of Joe Biden, there is increasing pressure for the United States to accommodate the global ambitions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Such a policy will weaken the strategic position of the United States and embolden the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which seeks to transform the rules of international politics, and has demonstrated its willingness to employ coercive measures, including threats and open conflict, to achieve its aims. 

As it has done for decades, and does so now with the Biden Administration, the CCP makes appeals for accommodation while emphasizing the need to turn away from more confrontational policies, like those most recently advanced by the Trump Administration. And as always, China’s words must be seen as tactical measures it deploys in pursuit of its objectives. Thus, it is only a matter of time before attempts to cooperate with China fail. However tempting, accommodation will not succeed for the stark reason that China does not want it. 

Party Chairman Xi Jinping has made clear that what China seeks is world hegemony. And it is upon the pursuit of this hegemony that his power in the regime depends. 

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Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Paper Sells out Final Edition

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Apple Daily (Hong Kong) Headquarters

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, sold out all 1 million copies of its final edition by 8:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

The newspaper has been a frequent critic of Chinese and Hong Kong authorities trying to suppress democratic sentiment and the freedoms of the semi-autonomous city, the AP reported. The newspaper was forced to close its doors after it said police froze $2.3 million of its assets, searched its office and arrested five executives and editors last week for alleged foreign collusion, in violation of Beijing’s national security law.

The arrests were the first time the law has been used against journalists for their work, the AP reported. Apple Daily was the last pro-democracy print newspaper in Hong Kong. Its owner, Jimmy Lai has been arrested multiple times and sentenced to 14 months in prison for involvement with the pro-democracy demonstrations.

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2021 Index Finds Rise in Global Economic Freedom, but U.S. Score Falls

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America’s economic freedom ranking has fallen to an all-time low, according to The Heritage Foundation’s 2021 Index of Economic Freedom.

The United States fell three places since last year and now ranks 20th in the world among countries evaluated, with an economic freedom score of 74.8 out of 100.

The 27th annual Index of Economic Freedom was released Thursday during a Heritage virtual event featuring Charles Payne, host of Fox Business’ “Making Money With Charles Payne.”

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Cincinnati Border Patrol Seizes Cocaine Covered ‘Frosted Flakes’

Peter D'Abrosca

Law enforcement in Cincinnati intercepted a creatively designed ploy to smuggle drugs into the country, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press release. 

“On February 13, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Cincinnati intercepted smuggled narcotics in a shipment of cereal originating from South America,” the release said. “The shipment contained about 44 pounds of cocaine coated corn flakes, which could have a street value of up to $2,822,400.”

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China Will Control Appointment of Chinese Catholic Clergy Without Input from Vatican

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New rules from the Chinese government indicate that China will exercise control over the appointment of Catholic clergy without any input from the Vatican.

The “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy,” which will go into effect May 1, clarified that the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) will select candidates for clergy who will then be “approved and  consecrated by the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference.”

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Georgia Democratic Senate Candidate Ossoff Initially Failed to Disclose Payments by Telecom Company Led by Official Opposed to Hong Kong Independence

Jason M. Reynolds

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff of Georgia was compensated by a Hong Kong media company owned by an anti-democracy executive, a source of income previously undisclosed, The National Review said.

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Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Lawmakers to Resign En Masse

The Associated Press

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers announced Wednesday they would resign en masse after four of them were ousted from the semiautonomous Chinese territory’s Legislature in a move one legislator said could sound the “death knell” for democracy there.

The resignation of the 15 remaining pro-democracy lawmakers will ratchet up tensions over the future of Hong Kong, a former British colony that has long been a regional financial hub and bastion of Western-style civil liberties but over which China’s government has increasingly tightened its control. A new national security law imposed by Beijing this year has alarmed the international community.

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Hong Kong Democracy Protesters Support Trump, View Biden as Weak

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Prominent pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters support President Donald Trump’s re-election bid citing his strong stance on China.

The protesters who have demonstrated against China’s tightening grip on Hong Kong believe that if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wins Tuesday’s election, the U.S. stance on China would be weak, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). As vice president, Biden lead former President Barack Obama’s China policy, according to The Atlantic.

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New York Times Publishes Pro-Beijing Official’s Op-Ed Praising Crackdown on Hong Kong Protesters

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The New York Times published an opinion piece on Thursday from a pro-Beijing official in Hong Kong who accused pro-democracy protesters there of “stirring up chaos” against “our motherland.”

In the article, entitled, “Hong Kong is China, Like it or Not,” Regina Ip defended the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) response to protests that started in Hong Kong in March 2019 over a proposed law that would allow for the extradition of fugitives to China.

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Steve Bannon Presents: Hong Kong and the Death of the CCP

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An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

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Hong Kong Postpones Elections by a Year, Citing Coronavirus

The Associated Press

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced Friday that the government will postpone highly anticipated legislative elections by one year, citing a worsening coronavirus outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

The Hong Kong government is invoking an emergency ordinance in delaying the elections. Lam said the government has the support of the Chinese government in making the decision to hold the elections on Sept. 5, 2021.

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All These Major American Companies with Hong Kong Footprints Weighed in on George Floyd’s Death, but Not China’s Hong Kong Takeover

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Major American companies were quick to issue statements in support of Black Lives Matter or social justice causes in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, but dozens of those same firms that have operations in Hong Kong have yet to weigh in on the Chinese Communist Party’s de facto takeover of the city.

Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Marriott, McDonalds, Nike and Scholastic are among the dozens of major American companies with footholds in Hong Kong that weighed in after Floyd’s death but have yet to weigh in on the new security law Beijing recently imposed on the city, which impacts its employees working in the city and which critics say is designed to crack down on dissent of the ruling Communist Party.

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Hong Kong Security Law Takes Aim at Protester Actions

The Associated Press

China on Tuesday approved a contentious national security law for Hong Kong that takes direct aim at some of the actions of anti-government protesters last year, in a move many see as Beijing’s boldest yet to erase the legal firewall between the semi-autonomous territory and the mainland’s authoritarian Communist Party system.

Details of the law remained under wraps until 11 p.m. (1500 GMT, 11:00 a.m. EDT), when it was published and took effect immediately.

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On Tiananmen Anniversary, Hong Kong Bans Insults to Anthem

The Associated Press

Hong Kong’s legislature approved a contentious bill Thursday that makes it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem.

The legislation was approved after pro-democracy opposition lawmakers tried to disrupt the vote. It passed with 41 lawmakers voting for it and just one voting against. Most of the pro-democracy lawmakers boycotted the vote out of protest.

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Commentary: Is China Threatening Taiwan, Hong Kong While the U.S. Is Weighed Down by Pandemic, Recession and Riots?

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Is China on the precipice of an aggressive expansion into Taiwan and Hong Kong while the U.S. is bogged down with the Covid-19 pandemic, the worst recession in a generation with more than 23 million jobs lost and riots over the police killing of George Floyd?

Amid the global response to the China-originated coronavirus, in January, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was reelected in a landslide, saying she supports the current political status of the island nation, which in her eyes is that Taiwan is so independent it doesn’t need to declare independence.

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Steve Bannon Thinks the Hong Kong Protests Are the Most ‘Important’ World Event Currently Occurring

Zachery Schmidt

  Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon believes the Hong Kong protests are the most “important event” happening in the world right now. “It’s monumentally important. Number one, remember the whole world has bought into this lie that the Chinese people are not ready for democracy, that the Chinese…

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