Sen. Marco Rubio Threatens War with China over Hong Kong

Sept. 4, 2019 (EIRNS)—Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), perhaps the most rabid of the China-bashers, was given space in the Sept. 3 Washington Post to literally call for the U.S. to prepare for war with China. Denouncing China for supposedly causing the crisis in Hong Kong, he writes: “China’s leaders today are using the same messaging playbook that they have followed since they intervened in North Korea in 1950. We were surprised then; we should be prepared now.”

The headline of his op-ed is, “China Is Showing Its True Nature in Hong Kong. The U.S. Must Not Watch from the Sidelines.” Interestingly, however, the first paragraph of his piece does not say that the U.S. “must not” watch from the sidelines, but rather that the U.S. and “other responsible nations” (read: the British) “are not” watching from the sidelines—i.e., we are already engaged, a virtual admission of involvement in the color revolution now in place.

“Thirty years after People’s Liberation Army troops massacred reform activists and ordinary Chinese citizens on the way to Tiananmen Square, Beijing now appears poised to intervene overtly and aggressively in Hong Kong,” Rubio rants. “In particular, the administration should make clear that the United States can respond flexibly and robustly in Hong Kong.” He demands the Congress pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which he co-sponsored with Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD), James E. Risch (R-ID) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), to impose sanctions on Chinese leaders who have “undermined the city’s autonomy.”  He further insisted that they should also use the Global Magnitsky Act to the same purpose. Then there is the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act, authored by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), which would allow sanctions that would “target the city’s police force, which has collaborated with organized crime, instigated violence and now might be torturing detained demonstrators.”