, Columnist
The U.S. Should Defend Hong Kong
America’s recently departed envoy warns that Beijing poses a dire threat to the city’s cherished freedoms.
Protesters clashed with police over the weekend.
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When I left my post as U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong recently, news organizations reported that the White House had effectively censored my valedictory remarks, as President Donald Trump apparently did not want to disrupt trade negotiations with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The Washington Post went so far as to say I’d been “neutered.”
Put the short-term politics aside. What matters is figuring out what’s really driving Hong Kong’s current unrest, and what the governments of Hong Kong, China and the U.S. should do about it.