WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump is striking an optimistic tone on reaching a trade deal with China, despite Beijing's opposition to a law Trump recently signed that expresses support for pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. "The Chinese want to make a deal. We'll see what happens," the president told reporters Monday, as he departed the White House for the NATO summit in London. The U.S. leader signed the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” last week, prompting stern protests from China. The trade deal between the U.S. and China has stalled as a result, according to the news website Axios. The news site quotes a source close to Trump's negotiating team as saying the trade talks were "now stalled" because of the legislation, and time was needed to allow Chinese President Xi Jinping's "domestic politics to calm." China says it is also taking other steps to retaliate against what it sees as U.S. support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. The … [Read more...] about Trump Optimistic on China Trade Deal, Despite Differences on Hong Kong
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Police Targets of Both Love and Anger in Hong Kong Rallies
Several thousand people shouting words of thanks to the police turned out in Hong Kong on Sunday in an unusual display of support for a force broadly criticized as abusive by the territory’s protest movement. People made heart signs with their hands at officers, with some calling them heroes for their policing of six months of demonstrations. Five Held Over Man's Death in Hong Kong Protests The three males and two females aged 15 to 18 were arrested on Friday on suspicion of murder, rioting and wounding and had been detained pending further investigation, police said in a statement The rally attracted a bigger crowd than a protest against the government a few hundred meters (yards) away. It brought together a few hundred people in a square. There were also scattered small protests against the government in shopping malls. Tensions flared in one mall after police arrested about eight protesters. Police used pepper spray when people threw bottles of water at them. … [Read more...] about Police Targets of Both Love and Anger in Hong Kong Rallies
Vietnamese immigrants rally behind Hong Kong protesters, pushing for democracy in Asia
On a balmy Saturday afternoon in November, dozens of people gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles to show their support for the protesters in Hong Kong.Carrying signs with slogans like “Stay Strong” and “Don’t Go Back,” they marched from Shatto Place up to Wilshire Boulevard and back to the consulate. Some wore masks, like their counterparts in Hong Kong, shouting “no brutality, no tear gas!”They distributed copies of the lyrics to the “Les Misérables” hit “Do You Hear the People Sing?” Then, turning to face the consulate’s security camera, they chanted the lyrics of the rebel anthem — just as protesters did during their peaceful takeover of the Hong Kong International Airport this past summer:Do you hear the people sing?Singing a song of angry men?It is the music of a peopleWho will not be slaves again Advertisement But the majority of those who rallied in front of the consulate … [Read more...] about Vietnamese immigrants rally behind Hong Kong protesters, pushing for democracy in Asia
Taiwan’s tea party aims to burst Beijing’s one-China bubble
TAIPEI, Taiwan - Call it the Taipei tea party. Or the new tea wars. For in Taiwan, the pearly is political. To show their solidarity with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and their commitment to Taiwan's self-rule, many consumers here are boycotting bubble-tea chains that support the "one country, two systems" formula China uses to rule Hong Kong and that it hopes one day to extend to Taiwan. "I deliberately came here today because it's an independent Taiwan store and it doesn't support 'one country, two systems,' " said financial-services worker Alex Shuie as he waited for his drink, known as bubble or boba or pearl tea, at the Ruguo stand in central Taipei. "There are so many options, so we can avoid the bad ones and still have lots of places to frequent," said Shuie, who each week drinks about five cups of bubble tea, characterized by its chewy tapioca balls. Milk or fruit, hot or cold, bubble tea is a source of cultural pride in Taiwan. When President Tsai Ing-wen was elected … [Read more...] about Taiwan’s tea party aims to burst Beijing’s one-China bubble
Carroll: Put down your pitchforks and get real about Big Tech’s trade-offs
The tide of public opinion has turned so sharply against Facebook — and Big Tech in general — that critics now casually use words like “catastrophe” to describe its influence, without fear of objection. Well, let’s object, shall we? Whatever Facebook’s faults, they hardly merit the comprehensive denunciations that are common these days — and which often preface calls for breaking up the company or imposing muscular regulation in order to prevent it from sinning again. The “catastrophe” example occurred in a Wall Street Journal feature in which author Marie Brenner was tasked with identifying the five best “memoirs of moral amnesia and self-justification.” She chose three by individuals who’d fallen under the spell of the Nazis as well as a memoir by Roy Cohn, chief counsel to Sen. Joe McCarthy. And the fifth? The book “Zucked,” an anti-Facebook broadside by Robert McNamee, an early investor in Mark … [Read more...] about Carroll: Put down your pitchforks and get real about Big Tech’s trade-offs