Just Saying | Don’t expect any help from a totally clueless Donald Trump in Hong Kong’s protest crisis
- Yonden Lhatoo dismisses the notion of the US president playing any meaningful role in pulling the city out of the abyss, arguing that his ill-informed input is probably the last thing we need
A reader from the United States made quite an interesting point in a letter he sent me upon seeing protesters regularly waving American flags at anti-government rallies in Hong Kong.
“I must say, seeing the star-spangled banner fly in your city gives me complicated feelings. On the one hand, apparently it is still regarded by you as a symbol of freedom, despite the little crisis this country is currently going through,” he wrote.
“Great. But on the other hand, I am not sure it’s showing up in the right place at the right time for the right reasons. Hong Kong is, in my opinion, as free as it can be if freedom means throwing whatever you want at the police. Try that in the US. If you throw a Molotov cocktail, be prepared to be greeted with bullets. Real bullets.”
The Iwo Jima-style raising of American flags at these gatherings may be more about trolling Beijing than treachery, but they’re also designed to grab the attention of US politicians in the hope that they will support the protest movement and censure the Hong Kong government. And it’s working.