Trump may raise Hong Kong protests with Xi as city remains a thorn in Beijing's side - CNN

Years of relative calm after the 2014 Occupy protests had given the impression that the semi-autonomous Chinese city had fallen into step with Beijing under leader Carrie Lam.

But in just eight days, mass protests have forced the government into a rare public backdown, emboldened anti-China elements in Taiwan and may even become a part of negotiations around the trade war between the United States and China.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News Sunday that he expected President Donald Trump to raise the Hong Kong protests with Xi at the G20 talks in Japan this month.

"I'm sure this will be among the issues that we discuss. We have a wide range of very important issues in the way China and the United States interact," he said.

Publicly, the Chinese government has struck a defiant tone on the protests, supporting the local government and blaming "foreign meddling" and anti-China elements inside the city.

But experts said the Hong Kong demonstrations drew attention to China at a time when Xi could least afford negative scrutiny.

"President Xi still wants to get the US trade talks back on track and he doesn't want to link trade with any other issue at this point," said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Xi's authority 'dented'

A policy concession by a top Chinese official is rare to say the least, and for it to come as a result of public pressure is almost unheard of.

Nonetheless, that's what Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam did on Sunday when she apologized to Hong Kong residents after an estimated 2 million of them, about a quarter of the city's population, took to the streets.

A day earlier, the government had suspended the controversial bill that protesters said would have potentially put political activists and business people at risk of being extradited to mainland China -- and disappeared into the country's opaque criminal justice system.

Chief Executive Lam and her government have insisted the bill was simply a way to close loopholes and ensure Hong Kong does not become a haven for fugitives from the mainland.

Instead, debate around the law appears to have revived Hong Kong's nascent protest movement at the worst possible time for Beijing, amid the US trade war and just months before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"It implies that if people are brave enough to show defiance against Beijing, they can get away with it, they can get some results, they can force Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party to back down," said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and longtime analyst of Chinese politics.

Lam said Xi's authority, already "dented" by the prolonged US trade war, would be further questioned in Beijing in the wake of the Hong Kong protests. "This is one more set back for Xi Jinping," he said.

Hong Kong divides US and China

Hong Kong is an unwanted headache for the Chinese leader less than two weeks before he is due to meet world leaders at the G20 summit in Osaka.

Most importantly, though it has yet to be confirmed, Xi is also expected to meet face-to-face with US President Trump for the first time since trade talks collapsed at the beginning of May.

Both sides blamed the other for the failure and, in response, the Trump administration raised tariffs to 25% on an estimated $200 billion of Chinese goods.

The Chinese government maintains it is not afraid of a trade war, but higher tariffs are an extra burden on an economy that's already showing signs of slowing.

While both sides are trying to find a way forward, the Hong Kong protests have sparked another wave of antagonism and rhetoric between the US and China.

After the initial protests, Secretary of State Pompeo expressed concern about the proposed extradition bill, while the US Congress has threatened new legislation which would downgrade Hong Kong's special status as a trading hub if Beijing doesn't stop infringing on the city's freedoms.

That special status is significant. Hong Kong is allowed economic freedoms that are restricted to the rest of China, which, tied with an unbiased court system left over from the UK colonial period, have led to many large Western businesses basing their lucrative China operations out of the city.

As more US businesses begin to look at investments outside of China, Hong Kong's role as the country's most economically liberal city is more important than ever.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday that any attempts to instigate chaos in Hong Kong were bound to fail. "We urge certain people in the US to respect basic facts, discard arrogance and prejudice, stop playing dirty tricks that meddle in Hong Kong affairs," said spokesman Geng Shuang.

China expert Glaser said it wasn't unusual for Beijing to accuse the US of interfering in its domestic politics, a standard pattern which went back decades to the fall of the Soviet Union.

But she added it wasn't out of the question for President Trump to see Hong Kong as a potential point of leverage in trade talks, similar to his handling of Taiwan relations or the export ban on Huawei.

"There's always a risk that he chooses to use Hong Kong as a bargaining chip," she said.

'Over my dead body'

The Hong Kong protests have also come during a heated presidential election campaign in Taiwan, which has increasingly been seen as a referendum on relations with mainland China.

Taiwan and China have been separately governed since the end of a bloody civil war in 1949, and in the past decade Beijing has been attempting to woe the island back through a combination of promises and threats.

President Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party has historically been seen as pro-independence, while the opposition Kuomintang have encouraged closer relations with the mainland.

But in a sign that the Hong Kong protests are spreading, a leading opposition Kuomintang presidential candidate came out hard on Saturday against closer ties with the mainland.

"'One Country, Two Systems' can never be implemented in Taiwan. Taiwanese people can never accept it, unless it's over my dead body," presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu told a rally, referring to the special system of government used in Hong Kong.

In response, the crowd chanted "Reject 'One Country, Two Systems,"' according to Taiwan news agency CNA.

President Tsai herself has made regular statements in support of the Hong Kong protesters, clearly trying to burnish her anti-Beijing credentials ahead of the January vote.

"In their pursuit of democracy and freedom, the people of Hong Kong (are) not alone. Because we know that if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything," the Taiwan leader said on her official Twitter feed on June 13.

China expert Lam said if the rebellious Hong Kong spirit spread to Taiwan, or even further, it would be dire news of Beijing.

"Xi has been trying to intimidate the people of Taiwan by naked demonstrations of force, but now the Taiwan people can point to Hong Kong to say that if the Taiwan people are united against China, they can get away with it," said Lam. "They can even force Beijing to make a compromise."

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2019-06-17 07:12:00Z
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Joshua Wong released from prison day after hundreds of thousands march in Hong Kong - CNN

Joshua Wong walked free Monday after serving one month of a two month sentence related to protests in 2014.

"It's really good timing to join the fight for freedom and democracy," he told CNN after his release. "Five years ago after the end of the Umbrella Movement, we claimed we would be back. Yesterday 2 million people came to the streets ... it shows Hong Kong people realize this is a long term battle."

Wong echoed protesters' calls for the city's Beijing-backed leader to resign.

"Why did Carrie Lam need to wait to suspend the bill until 1 million people came to the streets, it's because she's not elected by the people of Hong Kong," he said. "It's time for her to step down."

Wong added that he thought Beijing too must be looking at the chaos in Hong Kong -- amid the US-China trade war and other headaches for President Xi Jinping -- and wondering about Lam's future.

"Hong Kong is just a small international city with seven million citizens, but two million people came to the streets, it shows that we have the consensus," he said. "She has to end her political career."

Wong predicted that if the bill is not fully withdrawn and key officials resign, then protests could continue, particularly on July 1, the anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule and a key annual date for pro-democracy marches.

One of Wong's first actions Monday was to pay his respects at a memorial in Admiralty, near the main site of the protests, where a man fell to his death Saturday after climbing a shopping mall and displaying signs calling for the withdrawal of the extradition bill.

Wong's political party, Demosisto, has been among several youth groups -- all of which have their roots in the 2014 Umbrella Movement -- playing a big role in the protests against the extradition bill, which have been ongoing for weeks.

In a statement Saturday after Lam said she was suspending passage of the controversial bill. Demosisto said Hong Kongers should "demand that the bill be shelved for good, stand against political prosecution of protesters, condemn police brutality, and call for Lam's resignation."

"That Lam continues to blame the bill's widespread opposition as a result of Hong Kongers' misunderstanding of it is also condescending," Demosisto said Saturday. "Our movement may have won a battle, but the war is not yet over. We urge the international community not to turn away."

Wong appeared cognizant of that community in his statements Monday, speaking in Cantonese, English and Mandarin. He also thanked supporters in Taiwan, where the Hong Kong protests have become a major issue in the island's presidential election, creating yet another headache for Beijing.

Born in 1996, eight months before control of Hong Kong was handed over from the UK to China, Wong has spent most of his adolescence and all of his early adulthood fighting for the city's rights against what he and others say is increasing encroachment by Beijing.

A student leader during 2014's Occupy protests -- which called for universal suffrage in Hong Kong -- Wong became something of an international figurehead for the movement, and even appeared on the cover of Time magazine. His role in the protests later became the subject of the 2017 Netflix documentary, "Teenager vs. Superpower."

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2019-06-17 06:54:00Z
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'Massive failure' leaves Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay with no power, utility says - CNN

Parts of Chile and southern Brazil are experiencing outages as well, said Edesur, the Buenos Aires-based company.

The company later posted an updated statement removing Uruguay and Paraguay from the list of countries that were entirely without electricity, but it isn't clear how many residents in those two countries have had their power restored. Power was only partially restored in Uruguay, the country's energy authority said.

In a statement on its website, Edesur said a "collapse" in its system occurred around 7 a.m. (6 a.m. ET).

Edesur is prioritizing any customer who depends on electricity for health reasons, it said, but because the power outage is so serious, anyone experiencing problems should go to a medical center.

A tweet posted just before 10 a.m. (9 a.m. ET) said the company had begun generating electricity in Buenos Aires and the surrounding area. It said restoring power in greater Buenos Aires would take several hours.

Lucas Rodriguez tweeted a video of the Argentine capital in darkness before dawn, saying he'd never seen anything like it.

"The funny part is that we don't have electricity, but we have internet in our phones," he told CNN.

Edesur had restored service to about 450,000 customers by noon, the company said.

Power was also restored to parts of western Uruguay that border Argentina, and to some regions in the south, including Montevideo, said National Administration of Power Plants and Electrical Transmissions, the country's energy authority.

The cause of the failure is under investigation, said Edesur, which has launched an "emergency operational plan" to deal with the situation.

The Argentine Interconnection System, which experienced the failure, handles the bulk of Argentina's electricity. It is one of two such systems in the country, the other being in the Patagonia region.

The utility won't be able to fully restore power to the region until the interconnection system is running normally again, which could take all day, it said.

The three countries experiencing total blackouts are home to a collective 55 million people.

CNN's Amanda Jackson and Tatiana Arias and CNN en Espanol's Esteban Campanella and Daniel Silva Fernandez contributed to this report.

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2019-06-16 16:09:00Z
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Hong Kong's leader apologizes after extradition bill fuels massive protests - Fox News

The embattled leader of Hong Kong apologized over the handling of a controversial extradition bill after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets Sunday as outrage over the legislation continues to boil over.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam apologized to the people with  “utmost sincerity and humility” after massive crowds jammed the city's streets for a second Sunday in a row in a vehement show of opposition to the legislation that has stoked fears of expanding control from Beijing in the former British colony.

"The government understands these views have been made out of love and care for Hong Kong," according to a statement from an unidentified government spokesman.

HONG KONG SUSPENDS CONTROVERSIAL EXTRADITION BILL AFTER THE BIGGEST PROTESTS IN YEARS

Hong Kong residents have been outraged over the proposed extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial, with many fearing the bill would threaten civil liberties and an independent judicial system that were promised for 50 years when communist-ruled China took control in 1997.

Tens of thousands of protesters march through the streets as they continue to protest an extradition bill, Sunday, June 16, 2019, in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

"The chief executive admitted deficiencies in the government's work had led to substantial controversies and disputes in society, causing disappointment and grief among the people," a government spokesman said. "The chief executive apologized to the people of Hong Kong for this and pledged to adopt a most sincere and humble attitude to accept criticisms and make improvements in serving the public."

Lam, who was chosen by Beijing to be the highest-level local official, suspended her effort to force passage of the bill on Saturday in an attempt to quell protests.

But pro-democracy activists say that's not enough, instead demanding the proposal be withdrawn in addition for calls that Lam step down.

“She should have apologized for not improving people’s livelihood. She should resign,” music teacher Chau Chong told the South China Morning Post. "But sadly, we know that even if she does step down, Beijing will just find another puppet to run Hong Kong.”

Well after dark on Sunday, crowds gathered outside the police headquarters and Lam's office. The crowds filled a wide thoroughfare and side streets paralleling the waterfront of Victoria Harbor as tourists and shoppers who drive much of the Asian financial hub's economy looked on.

Tens of thousands of protesters march through the streets with a banner reading "Hong Kong stand firm" as they continue to protest an extradition bill, Sunday, June 16, 2019, in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

"Our demands are simple. Carrie Lam must leave office, the extradition law must be withdrawn and the police must apologize for using extreme violence against their own people," bank worker John Chow said as he marched with a group of his friends. "And we will continue."

HONG KONG EXTRADITION BILL DEBATE DELAYED AS POLICE REVEAL THEY USED OVER 150 ROUNDS OF TEAR GAS ON PROTESTERS

Protesters have mainly focused their anger on Lam, who had little choice but to carry through dictates issued by Beijing, where President Xi Jinping has enforced increasingly authoritarian rule. There has also been anger over the way police used tear gas, rubber bullets and other forceful measures as demonstrators broke through barricades outside the city government's headquarters in that smaller but more aggressive protest.

The police presence Sunday was considerably more relaxed, with officers deployed mainly to direct traffic as the protesters wound their way through Hong Kong's commercial center from a sprawling downtown park to government headquarters, according to the Associated Press.

Pro-democracy activists were calling for a general strike on Monday despite Lam's decision to suspend work on the legislation. Some labor unions, teachers associations and other groups were planning boycotts of work and classes, demanding the Lam administration retire the proposed amendments and not bring them up again for passage at a later stage.

"We encourage all the public to carry on the campaign," said Bonnie Leung, a leader of the pro-democracy group Civil Human Rights Front. "If any new violence takes place, it will be the responsibility of the police."

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After Lam announced she was suspending the legislation to avoid more violence and allow additional debate, Chinese government officials issued multiple statements backing that decision. Lam, however, made clear she was not withdrawing it. She has also sidestepped questions over whether she should quit and also defended how the police dealt with last week's clashes with demonstrators.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam arrives holds a press conference in Hong Kong on Saturday, June 15, 2019. Lam said she will suspend a proposed extradition bill indefinitely in response to widespread public unhappiness over the measure, which would enable authorities to send some suspects to stand trial in mainland courts. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Lam maintains that the extradition legislation is needed if Hong Kong is to uphold justice, meet its international obligations and not become a magnet for fugitives. The proposed bill would expand the scope of criminal suspect transfers to include Taiwan, Macau and mainland China.

"China just wants to turn Hong Kong into another Chinese city," Alex To told the AP. "Carrie Lam is just a figurehead. Everything depends on the attitudes of the leaders in Beijing."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-06-16 15:41:02Z
52780315047681

'Massive failure' leaves Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay with no power, utility says - CNN

Parts of Chile and southern Brazil are experiencing outages as well, said Edesur, the Buenos Aires-based company.

The company later posted an updated statement removing Uruguay and Paraguay from the list of countries that were entirely without electricity, but it isn't clear how many residents in those two countries have had their power restored. Power was only partially restored in Uruguay, the country's energy authority said.

In a statement on its website, Edesur said a "collapse" in its system occurred around 7 a.m. (6 a.m. ET).

Edesur is prioritizing any customer who depends on electricity for health reasons, it said, but because the power outage is so serious, anyone experiencing problems should go to a medical center.

A tweet posted just before 10 a.m. (9 a.m. ET) said the company had begun generating electricity in Buenos Aires and the surrounding area. It said restoring power in greater Buenos Aires would take several hours.

Lucas Rodriguez tweeted a video of the Argentine capital in darkness before dawn, saying he'd never seen anything like it.

"The funny part is that we don't have electricity, but we have internet in our phones," he told CNN.

Edesur had restored service to about 450,000 customers by noon, the company said.

Power was also restored to parts of western Uruguay that border Argentina, and to some regions in the south, including Montevideo, said National Administration of Power Plants and Electrical Transmissions, the country's energy authority.

The cause of the failure is under investigation, said Edesur, which has launched an "emergency operational plan" to deal with the situation.

The Argentine Interconnection System, which experienced the failure, handles the bulk of Argentina's electricity. It is one of two such systems in the country, the other being in the Patagonia region.

The utility won't be able to fully restore power to the region until the interconnection system is running normally again, which could take all day, it said.

The three countries experiencing total blackouts are home to a collective 55 million people.

CNN's Amanda Jackson and Tatiana Arias and CNN en Espanol's Esteban Campanella and Daniel Silva Fernandez contributed to this report.

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2019-06-16 15:33:00Z
52780315611794

Pompeo blames Iran for tanker attacks, says US does not want war but will take action if needed - Fox News

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated on Sunday President Trump’s claim that Iran was behind last week’s attacks on oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz and that the United States is ready to take action if necessary.

Pompeo said that Washington does not want to go into an armed conflict with Tehran, but hoped that the threats of force will be enough to draw Iranian leaders to the negotiating table.

“These were attacks by The Islamic Republic of Iran on commercial shipping, on the freedom of navigation, with a clear intent to deny transit through the strait,” Pompeo said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “There's no doubt. The intelligence community has lots of data, lots of evidence -- the world will come to see much of it.”

Pompeo added: “We don't want war. We've done what we can to deter this. The Iranians should understand very clearly that we will continue to take actions that deter Iran from engaging in this kind of behavior.”

TRUMP NOT 'WORTHY' OF RESPONSE, IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER SAYS AS JAPAN'S ABE TRIES TO EASE TENSIONS

By pointing the finger at Iran, Trump was keeping a public spotlight on an adversary he accuses of terrorism but also has invited to negotiate. The approach is similar to his diplomacy with North Korea, which has quieted talk of war, but not yet achieved his goal of nuclear disarmament. Iran has shown little sign of backing down, creating uncertainty about how far the Trump administration can go with its campaign of increasing pressure through sanctions.

Iran denied any involvement in the attacks and accused Washington of waging an "Iranophobic campaign" of economic warfare.

Trump last year withdrew the United States from an international agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program that was signed in 2015 under his predecessor, President Barack Obama. He has since then re-instated economic sanctions aimed at compelling the Iranians to return to the negotiating table. Last month, the U.S. ended waivers that allowed some countries to continue buying Iranian oil, a move that is starving Iran of oil income and that coincided with what U.S. officials called a surge in intelligence pointing to Iranian preparations for attacks against U.S. forces and interests in the Gulf region.

In response to those intelligence warnings, the U.S. on May 5 announced it was accelerating the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier battle group to the Gulf region. It also sent four nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to Qatar and has beefed up its defenses in the region by deploying more Patriot air defense systems.

IRAN RESPONSIBLE FOR 'BLATANT ASSAULT' ON OIL TANKERS, POMPEO SAYS

Officials said that Pentagon deliberations about possibly sending more military resources to the region, including more Patriot missile batteries, could be accelerated by Thursday's dramatic attack on the oil tankers.

Pompeo called on the international community to ramp up pressure on Iran, but said the U.S. reserves the right to take matters into its own hands to ensure safe passage for ships heading through the Strait of Hormuz.

“What you should assume is that we're going to guarantee freedom of navigation throughout the strait,” he said. “This is an international challenge. This is important to the entire globe. The United States is going to make sure that we take all the actions necessary, diplomatic and otherwise, that achieve that outcome.”

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One country that has sided with the U.S. in castling blame on Iran for the attacks is Saudi Arabia, with the Kingdom’s controversial Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman saying in remarks published Sunday that the country will not hesitate to confront threats to its security.

In an interview with the Arabic-language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Prince Mohammed said Iran disrespected the visit to Tehran by the Japanese prime minister last week and responded to his diplomatic efforts to reduce regional tensions by attacking the two tankers.

The crown prince, however, offered no evidence to back up his allegation.

"The problem is in Tehran and not anywhere else," Prince Mohammed said. "Iran is always the party that's escalating in the region, carrying out terrorist attacks and criminal attacks either directly or through its militias."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-06-16 14:30:59Z
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Hundreds rally in Moscow over journalist case - Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Several hundred protesters gathered in Moscow on Sunday in a small, government-authorized rally supporting investigative journalist Ivan Golunov and decrying abuse of power over his five-day arrest this month on drug charges.

People attend a rally organised by Union of Journalists and approved by authorities in support of the investigative journalist Ivan Golunov in Moscow, Russia June 16, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

The 36-year-old reporter, known for exposing corruption among Moscow officials, was freed following an outcry by supporters who said he was framed by corrupt police.

Journalists critical of Russian authorities have led a dangerous existence since the 1990s - sometimes threatened, attacked or even murdered over their work - but Golunov’s case triggered an unusually strong backlash.

An unsanctioned rally on June 12, the day after he was released, led to more than 500 detentions, including opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

But Sunday’s event was given the go-ahead, raising questions over whether President Vladimir Putin’s government was trying to provide a safety valve for public anger.

The rally, called by the Russian Union of Journalists and named “Justice and Fairness to Everyone”, had drawn a few hundred people by early afternoon, a Reuters witness said. State news agency TASS cited police saying around 1,600 were there.

Computer programmer Sergey, 28, said he was attending in the hope the protest would help stop others having drugs planted on them as he believes happened to Golunov. “Someone has to (protest),” he said, noting the small number at the rally.

Other demonstrators drew attention to detentions of regional journalists. “Moscow, Golunov is free. What about the others?” one of the banners read.

Putin fired two police generals over the case on Thursday, and other officers involved have been suspended pending an investigation.

Golunov was invited to Sunday’s event but did not turn up.

Reporting by Polina Ivanova; Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-06-16 13:20:00Z
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