Hong Kong leader points to US protests, calls out 'double standards'

While pointing to anti-police brutality protests in the United States, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam reportedly accused foreign governments of ‘double standards’ in their reaction to Beijing’s plans to impose national security laws on the city. While speaking to media reporters Lam warned that the countries threatening actions against the city may hurt their own interests. She said that the foreign government are very concerned about their own national security, but on the city’s national security, they look through the tinted glass. 

While speaking at the weekly news conference, Lam compared the current US demonstrations and the handling of it by the local governments to the stance they adopted when almost the same riots happened in Hong Kong last year. As per reports, in the US, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse peaceful demonstrators near the White House. Dozens of cities across the country also remain under curfews which they have not seen since riots after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 

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US accuses China of ‘preventing freedom of expression’ 

Earlier this week, China also reportedly said that the demonstrations in Washington show ‘chronic disease of racism’. However, US Secretary of States Mike Pompeo said that the situation is being used to fuel disinformation by the Chinese government and “trying to equate” citation in America with that in Hong Kong. Pompeo even said that situation in America is ‘completely different’ from month-long anti-government unrest in the former British colony. 

Furthermore, Pompeo even accused China of ‘preventing freedom of expression’ and said, “They’re out using disinformation about what’s taking place in American cities and trying to equate that somehow to what’s happening in Hong Kong. These are completely different. We have the rule of law.  We have decent Americans all across this country who are troubled by what happened, and they have the opportunity to speak freely about that”. 

(Image: AP) 

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