Mike Pompeo’s Latest Anti-China Provocation, Lauding Hong Kong Opposition’s Sham ‘Primary’

July 15, 2020 (EIRNS)—At the end of last week, leaders of Hong Kong’s “pro-democracy” opposition, many of whom organized violent riots last year against Beijing—flush with training and funding from the likes of the National Endowment for Democracy—held an unofficial “primary” to narrow down the list of opposition candidates who will participate in the Sept. 6 elections for Legislative Council. The primary, in which 600,000 people participated, wasn’t authorized by Hong Kong authorities, but was hailed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 14, who gushed that the “pan-democrats” primary “clearly demonstrates their desire to make their voices heard in the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to suffocate the territory’s freedom.”

The opposition falsely claimed their primary was to “safeguard Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.” In fact it was a blatant provocation. Yesterday, Xinhua reported, the spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council charged that the so-called primary constituted illegal manipulation of the election, posed a blatant challenge to the Special Administrative Region’s (SAR) Basic Law, and was an attempt to turn Hong Kong “into a base for waging a color revolution.” The “primaries,” the spokesman continued, have severely disturbed the election order, and may have violated the recently-enacted national security law.

One of the phony primary’s key organizers is Benny Tai Yiu-ting, an advocate of Hong Kong’s independence who was behind the 2014 “Occupy central” movement, and the terrorist “burn with us” tactic used in last year’s violence. Benny Tai Yiu-ting, the spokesman said, was a “political proxy of foreign and external forces” in Hong Kong. There will be “severe investigation and severe punishment,” he warned.

In his statement, Pompeo professed to be “gravely concerned” that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam had said the primary may have violated the national security law, because it shows that the Chinese Communist Party “fears democracy.” Pompeo warned, “we will be watching developments closely, especially as the Sept. 6 Legislative Council elections draw closer.”