U.S. Calls China a ‘Thuggish Regime’ as Hong Kong Feud Escalates
- Disclosing American diplomat’s personal information criticized
- ‘Not how a responsible nation would behave,’ spokeswoman says
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The U.S. State Department’s spokeswoman called China a “thuggish regime” for releasing personal information on an American diplomat who met with opposition protesters in Hong Kong, escalating a war of words over protests that have wracked the territory.
“I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information -- pictures, names of their children -- I don’t think that that’s a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,” Morgan Ortagus said at a State Department briefing on Thursday. “That’s not how a responsible nation would behave.”