By Andre Vltchek

June 05, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  In the United States, one city after another goes up in flames, as African-Americans and other protesters are battling the police, even the National Guard, while protesting against the continuous brutal killings of black people, in all parts of the country.

The spark came, as Mr. George Floyd in Minneapolis, was killed, literally choked to death, by the police, as he was screaming in agony: “I cannot breathe!”

Open the main page of Yahoo.co.uk, and you will find nothing, no news, about the enormous and ongoing uprising in the United States. However, there is plenty there about Hong Kong, about the National Security Law, as well as the threats made by Trump and Pompeo directed against Beijing.

Paradoxically, one has to visit sites of non-Western media outlets, including RT, for the most detailed reporting on what is happening in the United States:

“The death of Floyd, an unarmed black man who was pinned to the ground and choked out by a police officer, resonated with many protesters, even outside Minneapolis where the tragedy happened.”

"I got little brothers, I got nieces, nephews,” a protester named Briana Jenkins told Ruptly in Brooklyn, New York. “I'm scared for them to go out in the public and not be with one of us, you feel me. You don't even want your child going to the store real quick because you don't know what could happen." While the United States, the UK and other Western countries are busy insulting the Chinese government, Hong Kong administration and the Hong Kong police, American citizens, particularly the minorities, are getting gunned down, literally murdered by the law enforcement agents at rates unseen anywhere else in the world.

While Hong Kong rioters march under foreign flags, claiming that they are “fighting for democracy”, the increasingly privatized prisons in the United States are holding more detainees than in any other country on Earth. For decades, incarceration in the U.S. has not been about punishing the crime. It has become an enormous business, at the expense of millions of human lives.

In 2020, 2.3 million prisoners are being held in U.S. jails; 698 per 100,000 people, the highest rate in the world.

Since 2015, the U.S. police has killed 1,252 black people, 877 Hispanics.

Civil rights attorney and co-counsel for the George Floyd family, Lee Merritt, summarized the situation:

"America has the deadliest police culture in the modern world. There is no nation on the planet that kills and incarcerates more of its people. We are in a crisis position."

Mr. Merritt and attorney Benjamin Crump believe that there should be sanctions imposed on the United States by the U.N., because of the “continual denial of basic human rights to the African-American community."

The rioters in Hong Kong should read, again and again, a recent Tweet written by President Trump, related to the protests; a tweet which shocked the entire world:

“…Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

In the meantime, President Trump is threatening China with sanctions! U.S. officials criticize China and Hong Kong for trying to stop rioters.

It is all turning into a huge, bizarre, paradoxical political gaga.

The U.S., the greatest violator of human rights, domestically and internationally, is now ready to “punish” China for imposing the Hong Kong National Security Law, which is by no means excessive when compared to similar laws in Europe and Asia.

For obvious reasons, images and footage from Minneapolis and Hong Kong are never played side by side, never compared, as there is no ‘culture of comparison’ in the Western mainstream media: how many people die from police brutality, annually, in China and the United States? Where are human rights violated more?

And based on where human rights are being really violated, which country deserves to face sanctions?

Apart from moral issues, there are also serious economic questions. If the United States acts on its threats, and terminates the United States – Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, it is not going to be Beijing, but Hong Kong which will be the most affected.

On 30th May 2020, Market Watch reported:

“The Hong Kong economy would basically be gone,” if the U.S. were to end all privileges afforded it by the United States - Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, Diana Choyleva, chief economist at Enodo Economics told MarketWatch.”

“Most important, Choyleva said, is that the law mandates the free exchange of Hong Kong dollars for U.S. dollars. If the U.S. moves to restrict the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s

access to U.S. dollars, “that would be an extreme nuclear option” that could devastate the region’s banking and shipping and logistics sectors, while triggering widespread capital flight.”

U.S. policy, domestic and international, thrives on absurdity. It is Kafkaesque. Logic is not applied, anymore.

The more confused, the more irrational it gets, the less it can get defined, exposed and consequently, confronted.

Hong Kong is turning into a victim of the dying, decomposing, empire.

The confusion of the Hong Kong’s “protesters” is just a reflection of the intellectual and moral chaos of those whom they are serving.

[First published by China Daily Hong Kong]

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”.Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania – a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.  

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