'US is appalled': Pompeo slams China for arresting activists, says CCP fears 'free speech'

After Hong Kong pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam were jailed by a court, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the move on December 3. In a statement, Pompeo said that the US is “apalled” by the “political prosecution” in the former British colony. He further lashed out on China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the Hong Kong pro-democracy activist are ‘struggling’ to resist Beijing’s rejection of fundamental rights. Pompeo said that CCP’s “greatest fear is the free speech and free thinking” of its own citizens. 

Mike Pompeo said, “The United States is appalled by the Hong Kong government’s political persecution of Hong Kong’s courageous pro-democracy advocates. The use of courts to silence peaceful dissent is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes and underscores once again that the Chinese Communist Party’s greatest fear is the free speech and free thinking of its own people.”

US Secretary of State further said that Hong Kong had benefitted from a free as well as an open system that practised peaceful advocacy of the citizens including Joshua Wong, Anes Chow, Ivan Lam and Jimmy Lai. Mike Pompeo reiterated that Hong Kong should be able to exercise the rights that were “guaranteed” to them under the law when it joined China under ‘One Country, Two Systems’. US Secretary of State also said that their struggle to resist CCP’s rule will stand the test of time as “a testament to the human spirit”.

“Hong Kong historically benefitted from a free and open system that celebrated the peaceful advocacy of citizens like Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam, and Jimmy Lai...Their struggle to resist the CCP’s denial of their fundamental rights will stand throughout history as a testament to the human spirit,” he added.

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Hong Kong pro-democracy activists sentenced

Pompeo lashed out on the Chinese Communist Party after a Hong Kong court sentenced the prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong among others for more than 13 and a half months for ‘organising, participating, and inciting' an unauthorised protest outside a police headquarters last year. Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam have received a prison term of 10 and seven months respectively. All three activities had pleaded guilty last week over the charges related to 2019 protest.

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