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Joint Statement On Hong Kong by US, UK, Canada, Australia
U.S. department of State ^ | 5/28/20 | U.S., UK, Canada, Australia

Posted on 05/28/2020 1:52:53 PM PDT by ifinnegan

The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Begin Text:

Signatories to this statement reiterate our deep concern regarding Beijing’s decision to impose a national security law in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has flourished as a bastion of freedom. The international community has a significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability. Direct imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong by the Beijing authorities, rather than through Hong Kong’s own institutions as provided for under Article 23 of the Basic Law, would curtail the Hong Kong people’s liberties, and in doing so, dramatically erode Hong Kong’s autonomy and the system that made it so prosperous.

China’s decision to impose a new national security law on Hong Kong lies in direct conflict with its international obligations under the principles of the legally-binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration. The proposed law would undermine the One Country, Two Systems framework. It also raises the prospect of prosecution in Hong Kong for political crimes, and undermines existing commitments to protect the rights of Hong Kong people – including those set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

We are also extremely concerned that this action will exacerbate the existing deep divisions in Hong Kong society; the law does nothing to build mutual understanding and foster reconciliation within Hong Kong. Rebuilding trust across Hong Kong society by allowing the people of Hong Kong to enjoy the rights and freedoms they were promised can be the only way back from the tensions and unrest that the territory has seen over the last year.

The world’s focus on a global pandemic requires enhanced trust in governments and international cooperation. Beijing’s unprecedented move risks having the opposite effect.

As Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity are jeopardized by the new imposition, we call on the Government of China to work with the Hong Kong SAR Government and the people of Hong Kong to find a mutually acceptable accommodation that will honor China’s international obligations under the UN-filed Sino-British Joint Declaration.


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Breaking News; Canada; News/Current Events; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 202005; australia; canada; china; hongkong; india; smackdown2020; taiwan; unitedkingdom; vietnam; waronterror
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To: DesertRhino

As far as I know it was never installed on Hong Kong Island. After the agreement why would it be?


21 posted on 05/28/2020 2:54:09 PM PDT by Reily
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To: Reily

ChiComs withholding water in these circumstances would be a recognized crime against humanity.


22 posted on 05/28/2020 2:56:14 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: DesertRhino

“The hell with it. They should declare independence.”

I think the ChiComs did it for them with these new laws.


23 posted on 05/28/2020 2:56:57 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: ifinnegan
Hong Kong has flourished as a bastion of freedom.

So had the US.

ML/NJ

24 posted on 05/28/2020 3:05:37 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: ifinnegan

Perhaps China is trying to exercise the idea:

If your economy is on the ropes,
Start a War???


25 posted on 05/28/2020 3:06:29 PM PDT by Oscar in Batangas
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To: Reily

Time to install it now.


26 posted on 05/28/2020 3:10:36 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: Right_Wing_Madman

I’m sure, just like Israel,it already has one.


27 posted on 05/28/2020 3:14:14 PM PDT by Starcitizen (Communist China needs to be treated like the pariah country it is. Send it back to 1971)
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To: Starcitizen

They better prepare to use it if they have one.


28 posted on 05/28/2020 3:16:10 PM PDT by sport
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To: ifinnegan

Yes I know. Yes it was extortion, not exactly a new technique in international diplomacy.

Before we get too high up on the moral horse about this we should remember how the British presence in Hong Kong got started. Started to sell opium in China against the wishes of the Imperial government. And yes I know the British tried to sell European manufactured goods there. However there was no market for them, only a market for opium. The British fought a war with the Chinese to keep that market open. The Chinese haven’t forgotten. Imagine if the South American drug cartels fought us to keep their market open. ( Actually they are, though it may be more a political & propaganda war then shooting. I guess we’ll see who will win in the end.) Acquiring HK is their revenge, the happiness or not happiness of the locals don’t mean a thing in the Imperial\Communist scheme of things.


29 posted on 05/28/2020 3:20:15 PM PDT by Reily
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To: DesertRhino

Go ahead!


30 posted on 05/28/2020 3:21:10 PM PDT by Reily
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To: ifinnegan

No, but I think that the Brits were strong enough to hold off the Malaysian army when they pulled out and that Malaysia might find it more costly and difficult to seize Singapore than the Chicoms would find it to seize HK.


31 posted on 05/28/2020 3:23:10 PM PDT by Hieronymus (“I shall drink to the Pope, if you please, still, to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.Â)
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To: ifinnegan

I seem to have missed the part about “or else...”

File this with all the other International rulings and agreements, that the Chicoms just blow off.

The only way for the ChiComs to save face now, is for the HK legislature to pass the same law for them. The result is the same - freedom is gone.

If the West does not formally recognize the loss of autonomy, and withdraw all the favorable treatment of a Sovereign HK (like a freely convertible HK Dollar), then we are complicit.

There might not ever be such a clearly defined cause to spark such united action - just a steady growth of creeping oppression, now enabled by newly unfettered ability of the ChiComs to arrest any HK opponents and execute them under this law.

If they get away with this, they will be emboldened to grab more.

Weakness invites aggression.


32 posted on 05/28/2020 3:24:37 PM PDT by BeauBo
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To: DoodleDawg

lol


33 posted on 05/28/2020 3:26:06 PM PDT by dp0622 (Radicals N racists dont point ftingers at me I'm a small town white boy Just tryin to make ends meet)
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To: sport

No shiite.

Communist China no longer wants to be in the Community of Nationa.

Hope the Western powets strip Communist China of any position in any world organization. Starting with financial transactions through SWIFT,or Western nations quit the UN and found their own, a new League of Democratic Nations


34 posted on 05/28/2020 3:33:33 PM PDT by Starcitizen (Communist China needs to be treated like the pariah country it is. Send it back to 1971)
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To: Reily
"Imagine if the South American drug cartels fought us to keep their market open."

Gosh. "Imagine" that.

35 posted on 05/28/2020 3:36:07 PM PDT by StAnDeliver (I don't owe you my freedom.)
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To: mass55th; All

“0bama would have sent the Chi-Coms pallets of cash.”

How can we be sure that he didn’t? The Rat B@stard went there AGAIN in 2017 to rake in some cash for one of his canned-ham-teleprompter-read speeches!

SO much more to be discovered about that POS in the future. Much more.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2122095/barack-obama-meet-xi-jinping-beijing-during-three-day


36 posted on 05/28/2020 3:49:40 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
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To: ifinnegan

Hey China, everybody hates you.


37 posted on 05/28/2020 4:07:07 PM PDT by Arcadian Empire
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To: ifinnegan

Chicom bump for later.....


38 posted on 05/28/2020 4:30:03 PM PDT by indthkr
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To: Reily

It falls from the sky.

IMO, rain harvesting should be universal.


39 posted on 05/28/2020 4:43:12 PM PDT by coaster123 (Virus = First Plane Strikes Tower)
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To: coaster123

7,482,500 people in Hong Kong.

Its going to take a lot of rain & some big barrels!


40 posted on 05/28/2020 4:46:51 PM PDT by Reily
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