President Donald Trump issued is congratulations to Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese people on the 70th anniversary of Communist rule, acknowledging a government he has accused of ripping off the United States.
The president’s congratulations came in a tweet, following news that a riot control officer shot an 18-year-old protester in Hong Kong. The city was on lock-down following violent clashes.
Footage posted by The Hong Kong University Students’ Union shows a police officer drawing the gun and shooting a male activist at close range as the protester beat the officer with a baton.
The day featured the most extensive clashes between protests and police since protests began four months ago as China marked its anniversary.
In another development in Hong Kong amid National Day celebrations in China, a policeman was filmed shouting at onlookers, demanding they throw Molotov cocktails at anti-government ‘rioter’ protesters.
There were fresh clashes between pro-democracy activists and police after tens of thousands of demonstrators ignored a ban on marches and took to the streets.
Organizers said at least 100,000 people marched along a broad city thoroughfare in defiance of a police ban. Soon pro-democracy protesters were hurling gasoline bombs and anti-riot police fired live ammunition and tear gas.
A handout picture shows the injured activist being given first aid before being taken to Princess Margaret Hospital
The president’s missive came as China showed off its military might with a massive parade 15,000 troops, drones, and ICBMs.
The president has regularly signaled personal respect for President Xi, praising their relationship, even as the two sides have failed to find an end to the trade war. Xi in 2018 was able to remove term limits on his office an effectively become president for life.
Trump and his negotiators regularly complain that China allows for the stealing of intellectual property of U.S. businesses, while admonishing its aggressive military posture in the South China Sea.
Some fellow Republicans took a different tack in acknowledging the anniversary, a pivotal moment that allowed China to break free from years of subjugation by great powers, but also heralded famine and crackdown on individual freedoms.
A male Hong Kong protester has been shot in the chest by a live bullet during clashes. Footage above captures the moment
The wounded activist is seen being taken to hospital. He is said to be in critical condition after being shot in the chest
Modern China has become an economic powerhouse that is communist in name only while still maintaining the political structures set up after the revolution.
‘To see the price of the PRC’s anniversary celebration, look no further than what’s happening in Hong Kong: a ceaseless war against those who wish to live in freedom,’ said Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas in a statement. ‘From the Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution to the camps in Xinjiang today, it has been a ghoulish 70 years of Chinese Communist Party control.’
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! President Donald Trump offered ‘congratulations’ to China on the 70th anniversary of Communist Party Rule
GREAT LEAP: Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, with former presidents Jiang Zemin, right, and Hu Jintao, left, attend the celebration to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. Xi was effectively made president for life when he was able to remove term limits
Trump issued his ‘congratulations’ on the anniversary of the PRC
Trump also took heat IN 2018 when he congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his election to a fourth term, despite aides providing him the guidance: ‘DO NOT CONGRATULATE.’ The two men met in Osaka in June
President Barack Obama (L) took flak when he bowed while greeting Chinese President Hu Jintao at the the Nuclear Security Summit at the Washington Convention Center April 12, 2010 in Washington
The parade in Beijing featured DF-100 missiles
Chinese female soldiers shout as they march in formation during a parade to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, at Tiananmen Square in 1949, on October 1, 2019 in Beijing, China
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the GOP Conference chair, issued a searing statement along with Wisconsin GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher.
‘This is not a day for celebration. Rather, it is an opportunity to remember the victims, past and present, of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),’ the lawmakers said in a statement.
‘Since its founding, the People’s Republic of China has deprived its citizens of their fundamental human rights and human dignity. From the tens of millions who starved to death during Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, to the students who stared down tanks in Tiananmen Square, to the millions of Uighurs who have languished in concentration camps, and now to the courageous people of Hong Kong, the CCP’s appalling record of repression is clear,’ they wrote.
‘Today the CCP continues to wage a campaign of aggression at home and abroad. Chinese citizens are every day subject to a nightmarish totalitarian dystopia with the PRC’s ever-expanding surveillance state and social credit system. The Chinese government uses the same totalitarian tactics beyond its borders, bullying its neighbors and seeking to undermine sovereignty throughout the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
‘On the anniversary of the PRC, the U.S. stands with the foremost victims of the Chinese Communist Party: Chinese citizens themselves. It is for their future, as well as that of their fellow victims in Xinjiang, in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and beyond, that we rededicate ourselves to ensuring that the Chinese Communist Party is left on the ash heap of history,’ they wrote.
Chairman Mao Tse Tung announces the founding of the People’s Republic of China. October 1, 1949. Peking (Beijing), China. Critics of the regime pointed to the deprivations caused by the Great Leap forward, the use of the gulag, and the horrors of the Cultural Revolution amid the celebration
U.S. leaders have taken flack in the past while trying to acknowledge China’s desire for respect and legitimacy while minimizing the potential for political blowback at home.
Republicans ridiculed former President Barack Obama when he bowed upon greeting Chinese President Hu Jintao.