Trump: Rips China & WHO for COVID-19 Lies & Outbreak Then Hands Hong Kong to China

Pompeo (China Issues), Trump (Incoherent), 

Mnuchin (WHO Funding Axe)

Mixed messages is Trump's forté.  

Case in point is how Trump intends to to deal with China, Hong Kong, the WHO, and COVID-19 pandemic. 

Story here from the NY Times, in part, with this headline and his mixed signals and message:

Trump Moves to Strip Hong Kong of Special U.S. Relationship

Angered by China’s security crackdown in Hong Kong and its handling of the coronavirus (lying along with WHO), Trump says he will terminate the relationships with WHO and the U.S. special relationship with Hong Kong.

Key part to that amounts to the “Kiss of Death” for Hong Kong, or his hand at making a new deal with China; however, with Trump, we never know.

Pompeo’s finding amounted to a recommendation that the United States should reconsider its special relationship with Hong Kong based on a 1992 law says the United States should continue to treat the Beijing-ruled territory under the same conditions it did when it was a British colony.

I note on that law: Passed and signed into law on October 5, 1992 as Public Law 102-383. Guess who the bill main sponsor was and who introduced that bill? Yep, old Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – a regular senator at the time and not GOP majority leader.

Now Trump also made clear that he no longer considers Hong Kong to be separate from China.

I note right up front: On one hand Trump slaps China for several things including spreading COVID-19, hiding the virus truth behind and with the help from the WHO, at same time he announces cutting ties with them as punishment helping China hide the virus turmoil. 

Then Trump says he will strip away Hong Kong’s special privileges with the United States, ranging from an extradition treaty to commercial relations, with few exceptions, adding:  “My announcement today will affect the full range of agreements we have with Hong Kong, including action to revoke Hong Kong’s preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China.”

His announcement came largely in response to Beijing’s move this week to put in place broad new national security powers over Hong Kong.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he was reporting to Congress a determination that Hong Kong no longer had significant autonomy under Chinese rule. 

Pompeo had earlier called the new Chinese law a “death knell” for the territory, a global financial and commercial hub with special status under American law because, in theory, it has had semi-autonomy until 2047 under an international treaty that Britain and China signed giving Hong Kong to China after 100 years of British rule. 

Pompeo’s finding amounts to a recommendation that the United States should reconsider its special relationship with Hong Kong based on a 1992 law that says the United States should continue to treat the Beijing-ruled territory under the same conditions it did when it was a British colony.

Then Trump makes it clear that he no longer considers Hong Kong to be separate from China, basically saying to China: “Here’s Hong Kong on a platter, we are done dealing with them.”

Trump said: “China claims it is protecting national security. But the truth is that Hong Kong was secure and prosperous as a free society. Beijing’s decision reverses all of that. It extends the reach of China’s invasive state security apparatus into what was formally a bastion of liberty.”

He then said the United States would suspend the entry of some Chinese citizens who have been identified as “potential security risks” but did not give details. He appeared to be referring to a move to cancel the visas of graduate students and researchers who attended Chinese universities with ties to the military.

The New York Times reported this week that American officials had decided to go ahead with the action, which would affect thousands of Chinese students, a tiny percentage of the total number from China studying in the country.

Trump also repeated past charges that China had mishandled the coronavirus outbreak and suggested that Chinese officials had knowingly allowed travelers to fly from Wuhan to other countries, including the United States, while limiting access from Wuhan to other cities within China.

It was unclear from Trump’s announcement whether he was issuing a formal executive order to end the special relationship with Hong Kong entirely. The administration can take piecemeal actions — for example, imposing the same tariffs on goods from Hong Kong that the United States does on products from mainland China — before taking that final, drastic step.

My 2 cents: Wow – talk about being disjointed… this pretty much takes the proverbial cake. Trump makes a threat in the wrong direction (at Hong Kong) for China’s actions against them, acting as if China is innocent while claiming they are not on other unrelated issues vis-à-vis Hong Kong. And as I’ve said a long time, Trump is totally incorrigible.

Thanks for stopping by.