Washington’s plan to ban Hong Kong’s leader from the Apec summit is a textbook case of bullying by the US under the pretext of human rights, argues Post managing editor Yonden Lhatoo.
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00:00 So, the US government intends to ban Hong Kong's leader from the APEC summit in San
00:04 Francisco.
00:05 Let me put this nonsense into perspective for you.
00:13 This ridiculous farce harks back to 2020, when the US government put John Lee and several
00:18 other Hong Kong officials on its sanctimonious sanctions list.
00:21 The self-appointed sheriff of the world and supreme authority on what laws any country
00:25 can and can't have wanted to make a show of punishing these individuals over whom it has
00:31 zero authority or jurisdiction.
00:33 They were singled out for their role in implementing and enforcing the national security law that
00:38 Beijing imposed on Hong Kong following the anti-government, anti-China protest chaos
00:43 that consumed the city in 2019.
00:45 Lee, now Hong Kong's chief executive, was the top official in charge of security back
00:50 then and thus identified by the high priests of hypocrisy in Washington as a human rights
00:55 violator in need of American frontier justice for his brutal crackdown on the protest movement.
01:01 Fun fact, not a single person was killed by police despite well over a year of rioting,
01:07 mob violence and anarchy on the streets in the name of democracy.
01:11 How many Americans died in protests and political unrest the same year they sanctioned Lee?
01:15 Just google it.
01:17 Fast forward to the present day and now, in a fit of infantile pettiness and sheer spite,
01:22 the US government wants to shut Lee out of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum
01:26 to be held in San Francisco in November.
01:29 The utterly false narrative that Washington and its ever-compliant Anglo-Saxon vassal
01:33 states are peddling is that John Lee is some kind of tin-pot tyrant running a bloodthirsty
01:38 regime here.
01:40 All of us poor natives are hiding in our homes, living in terror of police batons and bullets
01:45 apparently.
01:46 Seriously, have you been to Hong Kong lately?
01:48 Let's compare John Lee's murderous track record with those of American leaders and
01:52 may the best man win.
01:54 According to the latest research by Brown University, a hallowed US institution, the
01:59 wars waged by Washington and fueled by its interventionist policies over the past two
02:03 decades alone have left at least 4.5 million people dead.
02:09 Think about that number.
02:10 4.5 million dead across Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.
02:16 And we're still counting the cost today.
02:19 According to the same research, 7.6 million children aged below 5 in these countries are
02:24 starving as we speak.
02:27 Is anyone holding American leaders to account?
02:29 Anyone sanctioning them for this modern-day genocide?
02:32 You know what's happening here, right?
02:34 Hong Kong is collateral damage, an easy target for the US as it seeks to undermine China
02:39 in every way it can.
02:41 So Hong Kong is being bullied.
02:43 That's why the US consulate here, instead of engaging in diplomacy and making rather
02:48 than breaking local connections, feels entitled to abuse the city's hospitality.
02:53 One example of that is how the consulate lights candles at its windows every year on the anniversary
02:58 of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
03:00 This blatant departure from diplomatic protocol could perhaps be justified if it were driven
03:05 by genuine mourning for the victims or concern that many Hong Kongers can no longer hold
03:10 their annual candlelight vigils as a consequence of 2019.
03:13 But no, it's just pure American theatre, as if they care a hoot up in Washington about
03:19 Chinese lives when they're like, whatever, about the blood of 4.5 million people on their
03:24 hands.
03:25 You know what's the best way to get a bully off your back?
03:27 By standing up to them.
03:29 Or, better still, giving them a taste of their own medicine.
03:33 For starters, Hong Kong authorities should hold tit-for-tat candlelight vigils for every
03:37 major atrocity the US government has perpetrated since 1989.
03:41 No need to be petty and go back any further in modern history, but I'll bet we have so
03:45 many anniversaries that we run out of candles.
03:48 Let's see how they like them apples.
03:50 [Music]