As protests with violence continued in Hong Kong for the eleventh week, the Chief Executive Carrie Lam has offered talks with critics of her government, while refusing to address protesters’ demands for withdrawing the controversial extradition bill, which sparked weeks of demonstrations.
In a news conference on Tuesday, Lam announced that her office “will start immediately a platform for dialogue with people from all walks of life”, while promising an investigation into alleged police abuse. “This is something that we want to do, in a very sincere and humble manner,” she said, and her administration is “committed to listen to what the people have to tell us”.
Carrie Lam said that she is hopeful that Sunday's peaceful protest, which drew as many as 1.7 million people out in the streets, would mean that Hong Kong is on its way to peace.
However, the violence in the protests in Hong Kong continued, and a protesters clash with riot police midweek moved away from the peaceful protests on Sunday.
The rally on Wednesday (21) night passed without incident for about three hours until shortly before 10 pm local, when dozens of protesters confronted riot police standing guard outside the station and nearby villages.
Police did not use teargas, rubber bullets and beanbag rounds to disperse the crowds, which marked a departure from the usual pattern of tactics over the past two months.
There are increased signs of Beijing’s opposition to the protests in Hong Kong. Satellite images of motorized units of China’s People’s armed police holding drills across the border in Shenzhen have heightened tensions and worries among demonstrators and others in Hong Kong. The Chinese reaction to the Hong Kong protests are seen as moves to send a message to the world, and increasing critics in the West, that any action it may take to quell the continuing unrest would be justified.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Carrie Lam has emphasized that HK’s economy will be impacted from the months-long protests and said the situation may be worse than what numbers have shown so far. “The Hong Kong economy is facing the risk of downturn,” Lam said. “We can see this from the data in the first half. Actually, I think the data in the first half has not fully reflected the seriousness of the problem.” Hong Kong’s government last week lowered its 2019 GDP growth forecast to between 0% and 1%, from the original range of 2% to 3%.
Various sectors have reportedly been affected, and markets are said to be hit hard as demonstrations turn increasingly violent, retail, and real estate sectors have seen their sales decline. Hong Kong’s International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, was gravely affected due to protest actions in the Hong Kong International Airport, and the city’s public transit system has also been disrupted on multiple occasions.
Lam also said that Shenzhen’s development (in Mainland China) will be good for the city, especially in terms of technology innovation, while stressing that Hong Kong still has unique advantages in attracting international companies.
Her comments come as China’s state council called for greater development of Shenzhen, a Chinese city which borders Hong Kong, and is turning into a major hub for China’s manufacturing and technology sectors, possibly seen as an emerging rival to Hong Kong.
EU stands firm on Brexit
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to face the harsh realities of the European Union’s policies on Brexit – Britain’s Exit from the EU, at his first meetings this week with the German and French leaders – Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron.
Both European leaders were strong in their support for the Irish Backstop, the key issue opposed by Boris Johnson in his call for a possible No Deal exit from the EU.
While pressing for a possible No Deal exit from the EU in his campaign for election as the UK Prime Minister, and continuing such policy at home, Johnson had to accept that it was up to the UK to come up with a solution to the main issue of disagreement with EU over Brexit.
At a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday (21) she indicated the UK will have a 30 day deadline to bring an alternative to the ‘backstop’ in Northern Ireland, which is strongly opposed by Johnson. He had to admit the necessity to come up with any alternatives to ‘backstop’ within this period. The 30-day time given by Merkel was because the details of such an alternative will have to be discussed by mid-September, and be placed before the next EU Summit in mid-October.
Johnson told Merkel at the press conference: You rightly say the onus is on us to produce those solutions, those ideas, to show how we can address the issue of the Northern Irish border and that is what we want to do. ..You have set a very blistering timetable of 30 days - if I understood you correctly, I am more than happy with that.
Until now the position of Boris Johnson and the UK Government is that it is up to the EU to make a first shift on the Brexit moves, by abandoning its stance on the backstop, which is the keeping of an open border, without any checks, between the Irish Republic (a member of the EU) and Northern Ireland a part of the UK.
Although Johnson said there were abundant solutions as alternatives to the backstop, not been presented by the UK in the past few years. He criticized his predecessor Theresa May’s government for not pushing them. But, most analysts of the alternative arrangements think they cannot replace the backstop.
President Macron has also not given any alternative to the backstop, which he has said is mechanism needed to protect the Northern Ireland peace process and the integrity of the single market in the EU. He said any version of the withdrawal agreement drawn up by Johnson that might be acceptable to the EU would be much the same as the one already on the table.
He has told Johnson, as Merkel said the earlier day, that there would have to be ‘visibility’ within 30 days as to what the UK alternative would be. He stressed that people would not wait till October 31, for a solution of the UK’s exit from the EU.
Macron says the Irish backstop has been negotiated, and it is an important element that guarantees stability in Ireland and the integrity of the single market. As for flexibility, these two goals must be met. He says the EU has to guarantee to its citizens that its market will be controlled.
Johnson intervenes to say that under no circumstances will the UK government impose checks at the Irish border, that he understands the EU desire to protect the integrity of the single market. But he thinks that can be protected, while allowing the UK to leave.
Boris Johnson returns to the UK with no success in his first visit as PM to the leading EU countries, and also facing mounting opposition to his moves for a No Deal Brexit, and official reports of many hardships to the UK economy and the people if the present moves lead to a No Deal Brexit.
Trump’s baffling politics and policies
President Donald Trump has moved to a phase of confounding politics and policies that range from constitutional changes, insults to US allies in Europe, attack of Democrat Jews in the US, and also claiming to be “chosen one” with a Christian divine exclamation.
Political and social analysts in the US are seeing the series of statements made this week as extraordinary in the declarations by any president of the US, and even by his own standards. In the approach to the next presidential poll in 2020, this is seen as harmful to Trump and the Republican Party, and also raising increasing concerns among US allies, especially in Europe.
Angered by the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen saying his call to buy Greenland was ‘absurd’, he broke off a planned official visit to Denmark, and called her ‘nasty’; although Denmark is a key NATO ally, and the US has a huge military base in Greenland. He has tweeted himself as the ‘King of Israel’ and referred to the second coming of God.
He has unveiled new rules allowing the US to detain immigrant families indefinitely, while asylum cases are judged; boasted about how much he was loved by the families of the survivors of mass shootings; insisted the Second Constitution Amendment, guaranteeing gun ownership would ‘stay strong’ - amidst concerns about spreading gun ownership and mass shootings, and threatened to release European ISIS prisoners back into their own countries.
He also emphasized the state of the economy being in good shape and in no danger of falling into recession, although economists and the business sector fears a recession in the coming months, while there were earlier signs of his concern about a near recession.
And he defended his trade war with China, suggesting he had the backing of a ‘higher power’, with suggestions of the deity – Looking up to the sky, with his palms open, and declaring: “I am the chosen one!” Adding that: “Somebody had to do it. So I am taking on China. I’m taking on China on trade. And you know what? We’re winning.”
He has said that American Jews who vote Democrat were showing “great disloyalty”, with little regard to the majority of the US Jewish population being Democrats. He said: “In my opinion, if you vote for a Democrat, you are being very disloyal to Jewish people and you are being very disloyal to Israel. And only weak people would say anything other than that.”
Political analysts see increasing fears in the Trump camp of a recession seriously affecting his re-election prospects.
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