15 June 2020 02:56 am Views - 694
When anti-Beijing protests gripped Hong Kong last year, and demonstrations broke out again in the city, with China’s impending imposition of a National Security Law for Hong Kong, the organisers of the protests were hailed by British and American leaders as progressive heroes.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, known for his bombast, said Britain would not walk away from the people of Hong Kong if China imposes a national security law that would ‘conflict with its international obligations under a 1984 accord’.
Britain colonised Hong Kong including the New Territories in the aftermath of the ‘Opium Wars’, which arose from China’s attempts to suppress the Britain’s opium trade in that country. British traders were illegally exporting opium from India to China resulting in widespread addiction and causing serious social and economic disruption. In spring 1839, the Chinese government confiscated and destroyed more than 20,000 chests of opium — some 1,400 tons of the drug — that were warehoused at Canton by British merchants.
Hostilities broke out in 1841, with the British capture of Nanjing (Yanking). In late August, peace negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Nanjing in 1841. Under its provisions, China was forced cede Hong Kong to the British.
For over a 100 years, the Chinese were subject to degradation and humiliation by the British colonialists. An example of how the British looked on the Chinese is best summed up in notices put up in municipal parks... “Dogs and Chinese not permitted”.
It was only after the Chinese Communist Revolution led by the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao Zedong, that resulted in the fall of the western imperialist-backed puppet government and the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China, on October 1, 1949, did Britain’s attitude toward the Chinese people change. Fear that Chinese troops would evict them (British) from the New Territories, Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula!
The ‘Daily Mail’ reported US President Donald Trump urged his Chinese counterpart on Thursday to meet with protesters who had turned Hong Kong into a tense power keg, saying that Xi Jinping could resolve the standoff before China’s military crosses the border. On May 30, ‘ABC NEWS’ reported, President Trump announced that the US would sanction China for its handling of Hong Kong.
However, when unarmed protesters took to the streets all over the US in June, demonstrating against the killing of George Floyd - an Afro-American man by white American policemen, protestors were met with police baton charges, tear gas and firing of rubber bullets. A number of protestors were killed by police fire. President Trump unfortunately did not try to meet the protestors and defuse the situation. Instead he called on authorities to forcefully crush the protest. He even threatened to send in federal troops to crush the protests.
rt.com reports that when asked on Wednesday how he felt about nations like China and Iran condemning police brutality in the US, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded that the US is “the greatest nation in the history of civilization” – and nothing that happens in America could ever be compared to anything that happens on the streets of Beijing or Tehran... The hypocrisy of the US is further exposed in the manner it blindly backs Israeli atrocities committed on the people of Palestine vetoing Security Council Resolutions on Israeli atrocities committed against Palestinians.
To date, the US has supported Israel at the Security Council level against all charges irrespective of the gravity of crimes it has been charged with. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a number of resolutions, saying the strategic relationship with the United States encourages Israel to pursue aggressive and expansionist policies and practices including at its 74th Session 37th and 38th meetings.
The 9th Emergency Session of the General Assembly was convened at the request of the Security Council when the United States blocked efforts to adopt sanctions against Israel. The United States responded to the frequent criticism from UN organs by adopting the Negroponte doctrine of opposing any Security Council resolutions criticizing Israel that did not also denounce Palestinian
militant activity.