⁍ U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed China for the arrest of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
⁍ He said the move indicated that Beijing is unlikely to change its position on the financial hub.
⁍ Pompeo told the Conservative Political Action Conference that the United States would take action to ensure that Washington treated Hong Kong as an extension of China.
– “I’m not optimistic given what we saw this morning … that they’re going to change what they’re doing,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Monday, referring to China’s arrest of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai. “But what we can be sure, and President Trump has said, is that to the extent the Chinese Communist Party treats Hong Kong as just another communist-run city, the United States will do the same.” Lai was arrested under China’s new national security law, which gives Beijing sweeping powers over the former British colony. The Wall Street Journal reports that Lai is the highest-profile person arrested under the law, which was passed June 30. “I’m very concerned that Hong Kong may have just had its last democratic election,” Pompeo said, referring to next year’s lower-level district council elections. (President Trump has said the US will treat Hong Kong “as just another communist-run city.”)
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-security-usa-pompeo/pompeo-says-after-lai-arrest-unlikely-that-china-will-rethink-hong-kong-stance-idUSKCN2562HQ