Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss China’s new national security laws that aim to prohibit anti-Beijing sentiment in Hong Kong.
As the world waits to see how the Trump White House will respond to China, and the Hong Kong security laws, future tension between the two superpowers will not be focused on Hong Kong but on Taiwan.
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US – China COLD WAR Will Focus On Taiwan Not Hong Kong by The Duran
The Duran Quick Take: Episode 560 The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss China’s new national security laws that aim to prohibit anti-Beijing sentiment in Hong Kong. As the world waits to see how the Trump White House will respond to China, and the Hong Kong security laws, future tension between the two superpowers will not be focused on Hong Kong but on Taiwan.
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai is calling on President Donald Trump to “save” Hong Kong from China.
On Wednesday, CNN published an interview with Lai, the 72-year-old millionaire and founder of Next Media, which owns Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper that’s often critical of leaders from China and Hong Kong.
“Mr. President, you’re the only one who can save us,” Lai said in a direct plea to Trump. “If you save us and stop China’s aggressions, you also save the world.”
On Sunday, Lai’s newspaper, Apple Daily, published a front-page letter pleading with the US president to defend Hong Kong. The letter finishes: “Mr. President, please help us.”
Lai told Bloomberg News this week he thinks Trump should begin with sanctions against Chinese officials.
“The most effective sanction … is to freeze the bank account of the Chinese top officials’ corrupt money in the US and in the free world. I think this will scare a lot of them off,” he said.
Lai’s an unusual figure in Hong Kong since he backs pro-democracy groups while being a millionaire. He’s been denounced by China’s state media as an agent for the CIA, according to The New York Times.
As part of a government crackdown, he was arrested in February and charged with illegal assembly for joining anti-government protests last summer.
Lai was also charged with intimidation in conjunction with a clash with a journalist in 2017, according to the BBC.
His plea for help comes after China pushed through a set of national security laws intended to crack down on anti-Beijing sentiment in Hong Kong and weaken the region’s autonomy, Business Insider previously reported.
Over the weekend, thousands protested and police fired tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets. By Wednesday, more than 360 people had been arrested.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this week that the State Department no longer viewed Hong Kong as having significant autonomy from China, according to The New York Times.
This indicated that US-Hong Kong trade relations could suffer, or come to an end.
Lai has been increasingly vocal about the US stepping in on Hong Kong’s behalf: Last weekend he created a Twitter account, where he posted tweets in English saying he was “prepared to sacrifice blood and tears” for freedom.
He tweeted directly at Trump, calling the president a “man of his words” and asking him to follow through on the “serious consequences” Trump had promised if China passed the national security laws.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this week that the State Department no longer viewed Hong Kong as having significant autonomy from China, according to The New York Times.” I do not think that the Chinese Government is very interested in what Pompeo has got to say.
How is the West a liberal democracy? It’s run by Jewish supremacists who act like Nazis against Arabs. US illegally invades other nations. It is an imperialist oligarchy. It destroys Christian bakers who won’t bake ‘gay wedding’ cakes. It uses Antifa to silence and suppress Dissident Right. It forces mass migration-invasion on Europe. UK arrests people for tweets. France killed free speech and lets Jews shut down speech on grounds of ‘hate’.
China is no worse. At least, Chinese authoritarianism is for Chinese interests. In the West, the tyranny is in service of Jewish supremacist interests.
You just can’t get off your high horse!”A billionaire running pro-democratic news outlet”, and he is asking another billionaire to help him save democracy, how stupid do you think we are?¨
This is, by far, your worst video, gentlemen. Alex, you are Trump-groupie incapable of seeing fault in anything your idol does. As for you, Alexander, you have shown a woeful lack of understanding of both China’s history, and the way its present government work. Not everything that isn’t a Western-style democracy is a dictatorship. For China to be a “dictatorship”, its leader would have to be a dictator, and that is something Xi is not. Anyone who believes him to be, is woefully unaware of the sheer amount of deliberation that goes on behind the scenes in China, before any… Read more »
Well said. The Duran Duo needs to do a little more perceptive and critical thinking.
The Taiwan issue has nothing to do with the CCP’s desire to “control”, and everything to do with the Chinese nation’s and state’s desire to re-assert their sovereignty over what is – in the eyes of both PRC and ROC – an unalienable part of China. As for Hong Kong, it is part of China, and the autonomy in which it enjoys – something it never had under British occupation! – always had an expiry date. To link this to desire for power and “dictatorship” is just absurd, if not malicious.