@rbreich The greatest geopolitical catastrophe since WWII was democracies' 'coupling' (i.e. financing and empowering) with the military-expansionist CCP dictatorship of China in the first place.

USA handing that dictatorship its "Most Favoured Nation" trade status in 1994 and greenlighting its accession to the WTO in 2000.

They were epoch-making *bi-partisan* mistakes, sponsored by your business/donor interests' greed.

Now both sides of your two-party system have to some extent realized what globally powerful monster you created over the last 30+ years.

Trump is a narcissist-fascist moron and his motley crew of sycophant morons are naturally doing it idiotically, but moaning about the fact that the USA is now engaging "trade war" (instead of rightfully moaning about the disastrous tactics!) feels a little rich.
(The CCP was *always* manipulating trade and tech transfers to its sole benefit)

Democrat administrations since the Tiananmen massacre of 1989 at the latest should all have tried building a *global coalition of democracies* that rewarded democracy and shunned all despots.

Instead putin was emboldened watching how the CCP regime got away with literally everything, just like all other dictators.

This rant wasn't your finest hour.

@EugeneMcParland The CCP dictatorship doesn't hand out exit permits (passports) to its subjects without requiring specific reasons for the travel to barbarian lands.

If the Chinese mercenaries helping #russia invade #Ukraine were *not* sanctioned by the CCP party-state one should expect very harsh punishments for such insolence.

Recruited using social media? Without the #CCP knowing? Right...

@arstechnica He was admittely appreciated in his native Hong Kong until he turned into a firebrand communist party stooge.

Now it's quite the opposite. He's loathed.

(Not sure about the timing, but his son was caught in the PRC in possession of cannabis which might have something to do with his radicalization, but now he's a full jingoist little pink.)

#Hongkong #CCP's #BankingColony #jackiechan

World's democracies condemned the crackdown in Hong Kong, but did nothing to impose costs on the CCP dictatorship. Instead business (read: Chinese exports) only grew and grew. Gotta empower them despots! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hong Kong's pro-democracy struggle presented an opportunity for democracies to stand up against dictatorship, but we failed miserably.

Giving the #CCP yet another free pass (after its repressive occupation of Tibet in 1950-1951 and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre) surely emboldened #putin to invade #Ukraine in 2022.

Repression of Tibetans, Uighurs, South-Mongolians, Hongkongers... or a billion+ voiceless Chinese brought no consequences, but at least the invasion of *European* Ukraine gave us Europeans a limited wakeup.

It's not enough. We could have aided developing democracies when the Soviet empire fell in 1989-1991 and *not aided* repressive regimes. Instead we doubled down on doing business without limits and empowered the likes of Chinese dictatorship.

There are things I love about Europe, and things I am deeply ashamed of. Talking about human rights while empowering despots belongs in the latter category.

Some foreign individuals did "Stand with Hong Kong" though. At least one here in Mastodon is, as always, still busy fighting authoritarian takeover. Now in her homeland of the USA.

“Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.“
— Nelson Mandela

This recap covers only the tiniest fraction of what went on in 2019 and what followed. CCP now has total control of all levers of power and influence in its #BankingColony without civil liberties. Its propaganda blaming "foreign forces" for "black-clad violence" was broadcast on all global authoritarian media. Many Hongkongers, especially youth and families with kids, have emigrated or fled the territory.

AFAICT only a small minority of Hong Kong's expats participated in the protests, but many more have since left due to the repressive atmosphere. Some sosiopathic sycophants have apparently moved there though in search of profit along with russians (probably shipping tech back to militant russia and helping skirt international financial embargoes...).

One final #trump anecdote: In 2020 when the CCP-imposed "state security law" (NSL) was coming into effect (in typical CCP style, the 'law' is *retroactive*, meaning any perceived *past* infringement can and will be prosecuted!), one of the globally famous pro-democracy faces, young Joshua Wong, tried applying for political asylum at a US mission in Hong Kong but he was denied entry by the trump 1.0 admin...

For his devotedly (he's s practising catholic) peaceful advocacy of promised democratic rights he's been incarcerated until 2029 at least. In a gaol without air-conditioning or heating more akin to a Chinese laogai. Just like all the other peaceful advocates of democracy.

“President Trump said, ‘Why don’t we just open up? Why don’t we just let a huge portion of people from Hong Kong move to the U.S.?’ And I loved it,” Pottinger told us. “You know, my view was just, transplant the whole damn city and make a new Hong Kong in America. [Trump] was like, ‘They’re going to be industrious; they’ll be great. They’ll make great Americans.’”

But Stephen Miller, Trump’s far-right political adviser, stopped the immigration scheme from going further. He was “very persuasive,”

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/11/hong-kong-activists-washington-dc/675693/