Activist Calls on U.S. to Stop Selling Tear Gas to Hong Kong
- Joshua Wong singles out canisters, rubber bullets from U.S.
- U.S. firms could be latest to get caught up in the protests
Demonstrators stand in a cloud of tear gas during a protest in the Sheung Wan district of Hong Kong, July 28.
Photographer: Justin Chin/BloombergJoshua Wong, the student activist who shot to fame during Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement protests five years ago, said the U.S. government should suspend sales of riot gear to the city to prevent human-rights abuses as the weeks-long demonstrations intensify.
In a tweet on Monday, Wong attached pictures of riot police shooting at protesters and some close ups of a tear-gas canister made by Homer City, Pennsylvania-based NonLethal Technologies Inc. A day earlier, Wong tweeted pictures of rubber-bullet shells made by ALS, a unit of Perry, Florida-based Pacem Defense Co. It wasn’t immediately clear how much of Hong Kong’s crowd-control supplies originated from the companies, or from the U.S.