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Hong Kong Protests Become a Global Problem

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Hong Kong Protests Become a Global Problem(Bloomberg) — Tensions between Hong Kong and the government in Beijing are increasingly spilling outside China’s borders.China’s foreign ministry this week accused the U.S. of being a “black hand” behind protests that have rocked Hong Kong since early June, while Secretary of State Michael Pompeo urged Beijing to “do the right thing.” An encounter at an Australian university between supporters and critics of the Hong Kong demonstrators ended with punches being thrown.With no end to the protests in sight — hundreds of people staged a sit-in at Asia’s busiest airport Friday — the dispute over Hong Kong’s future risks dragging in parties from all over the world. That could include diplomats, tourists, universities and multinational businesses caught up in the territory’s tinderbox political climate.For the Trump administration and the Communist Party in Beijing, the issue has become one of many flash points ranging from trade to technological dominance to corporate espionage. The debate over Hong Kong is getting more heated, just as U.S. negotiators prepare to restart trade talks next week in Shanghai.There are “signs of foreign forces behind the protests,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Tuesday in Beijing. “I wonder if these U.S. officials can truthfully answer to the world the role the U.S. has played in recent events in Hong Kong.”The accusation of meddling was rebutted by Harvey Sernovitz, a spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong.“This is a ridiculous statement,” he said on Wednesday. “The ongoing demonstrations in Hong Kong reflect the sentiment of the people of Hong Kong and their broad concerns about the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy.”Still, Donald Trump has indicated he does not want the Hong Kong protests to interfere with the broader relationship with China, particularly his personal rapport with President Xi Jinping. Trump has said several times in recent months that Hong Kong’s affairs are a matter for Beijing.Earlier this week he said Xi had “acted responsibly, very responsibly — they’ve been out there protesting for a long time.” He told reporters at the White House he hoped Xi would “do the right thing,” adding that China could stop the protests “if they wanted.”Pompeo, who has slammed China in recent months for alleged abuses against the Uighur Islamic minority population of Xinjiang, urged all sides to avoid violence.“We hope that the protests will remain peaceful,” Pompeo told Bloomberg Television Thursday.At the University of Queensland in Brisbane on Wednesday, rival groups faced off over the situation in Hong Kong, with one side singing pro-China songs and the other chanting “free Hong Kong.” Footage posted on Twitter showed protesters hurling verbal abuse as police tried to restore calm, while two people exchanged punches.The Chinese consulate in Brisbane issued a statement Thursday praising students for staging “a voluntary patriotic rally in response to two consecutive anti-China and secessionist protests held at the university campus,” according to a website run by the Communist Party’s Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid.Further ProtestsThe Hong Kong protests have also resonated in Taiwan, a democratically-run island that China considers a province. President Tsai Ing-wen said last month that people in Hong Kong people have the right to pursue their way of life and system they want.For now, differences of opinion over Hong Kong haven’t prevented China from cooperating with its critics on other issues.Boris Johnson, the U.K.’s new prime minister, told Phoenix Television his country was “very pro China.” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Johnson in a congratulatory letter that he’s willing to expand bilateral cooperation in all sectors and push for steady development in a “golden era” of ties, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.The warm words came less than a month after officials openly accused each other of behaving inappropriately toward Hong Kong, which was a British colony before its handover to China in 1997.More opportunities for tensions to escalate could come this weekend. Protest groups are seeking to hold a demonstration on Saturday in the same area where unidentified groups of men attacked people at a train station in the northwestern suburb of Yuen Long on July 21. Police have withheld approval for the protest, but organizers insist they’ll go ahead.(Updates with Trump comments, Taiwan context.)To contact the reporter on this story: Enda Curran in Hong Kong at [email protected] contact the editors responsible for this story: Tracy Alloway at [email protected], Michael PattersonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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