Nov. 21 — A standoff between authorities in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong and U.S.-backed rioters who occupied Polytechnic University appears to be winding down. Hong Kong police have the upper hand with a handful of holdouts still inside.
While Nov. 18 saw one of the most violent confrontations to date, after months of right-wing, anti-communist riots, the majority of those who had occupied Polytechnic exited the campus when the police were poised to move in. Much of the university, including libraries and other facilities used by students, has been destroyed.
Destruction of government buildings, blockades of mass transportation, bridges and other public facilities, and violent attacks on police and Hong Kongers loyal to socialist China are the hallmarks of this “democratic movement,” as the Western media characterize it.
This was only the latest episode — and with imperialist maneuvering driving the chaos, a return to normalcy is far from certain.
The U.S. and Britain have egged on the pro-Western protests in an attempt to separate Hong Kong from China. Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, after the British stole it in 1847 during the Opium Wars and held it as a colony for 150 years.
In the 1997 agreement, China allowed that capitalism could continue to function in Hong Kong until 2047. What was essentially a “mini-constitution” for the city, called the Basic Law, was put in place. The agreement granted wide autonomy to the Hong Kong administration and gave final authority regarding any changes to the agreement to the central government of China.
Right-wing rebellion
What is in fact a right-wing rebellion began in early 2019 over an attempt to pass an extradition law to send a man, who had admitted to murdering his girlfriend, to Taiwan. Similar treaties exist between many countries in the world.
The legislation was later withdrawn as a concession to the protesters, but by that time their demands had morphed into distancing Hong Kong from the People’s Republic of China. Large numbers of protesters faded away at that point.
Now a smaller, more violent group, coaxed by imperialist functionaries, continue the mayhem. Tactics have shifted from mere property destruction to more use of petrol bombs, hurling bricks, violent attacks and the latest addition: bows and flaming arrows.
Until now, the Hong Kong police have been restrained, compared to what would have happened anywhere in the U.S. under similar circumstances. Imagine the U.S. response if Chinese officials were advising Black Lives Matter or Antifa organizers!
Links to Bolivia coup
The leaders of the Hong Kong protests have carried out actions and have associated with characters that reveal tactical similarities to the so-called color revolutions and other regime-change operations organized by intelligence agencies of the U.S.
One example that comes to mind is how a Venezuelan “opposition” crowd burned an Afro-Venezuelan man to death in May 2017. Earlier this month, the “peaceful protesters” in Hong Kong doused a man arguing with them with a flammable liquid and lit him on fire as well.
In an episode of a podcast called “China Unscripted,” a ridiculous anti-communist host interviewed a young Bolivian woman named Jhanisse Vaca-Daza, who talked about her “nonviolent activism” in Bolivia. She and a handful of others led a propaganda blitz that blamed Bolivian President Evo Morales for the massive fires in the Amazon rainforest, effectively using Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s profit-driven recklessness as a counterrevolutionary propaganda tool.
She also praised and candidly admitted that she’s met with Hong Kong protest leaders.
Vaca-Daza happens to be the “Freedom Fellowship Manager” at the Human Rights Foundation. On her LinkedIn profile, the Freedom Fellowship is described in typical National Endowment for Democracy language as “a one-year program that awards ten human rights advocates, social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders from countries ruled by authoritarian regimes around the world with the unique opportunity to dramatically increase the impact of their work.”
Numerous U.S. officials have met directly with leaders of the Hong Kong riots. Late in August, some anti-China Hong Kong officials flew to Montana and met under the radar with a bipartisan group, including a U.S. senator and three representatives, to discuss legislation to punish China for “human rights violations.”
The fruit of that meeting is a pair of bills championed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and passed by both houses of Congress on Nov. 21: the so-called “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.” One bill mandates an annual review to determine if Hong Kong’s level of autonomy warrants continuing special trade status and allows sanctions to be imposed. The second bill blocks sending nonlethal ammunition to the Hong Kong police.
The response from China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Geng Shuan, was swift and angry: “This act neglects facts and truth, applies double standards and blatantly interferes in Hong Kong affairs and China’s other internal affairs.
“The United States must immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China’s other internal affairs, or the negative consequences will boomerang on itself,” the official said.
Many view Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with Beijing as a possible restraint on more direct U.S. attacks on China’s sovereignty. But so far it has not restrained them.
Hong Kong is part of China. The Chinese government and People’s Liberation Army may have no choice but to reinforce the Hong Kong police and end what is essentially a U.S. intervention in Hong Kong.
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