Trump ups gears for Joe smear

Beijing to hit back on sanctions

HONG KONG: China has threatened “strong countermeasures” if the US presses ahead with tough new sanctions targeting banks over infringements on Hong Kong’s autonomy, after Beijing imposed a strict new security law on the key financial hub.

Beijing has faced a groundswell of criticism from the West over its decision to impose a law outlawing acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces in Hong Kong.

That includes from Britain, which plans to extend citizenship rights to Hong Kongers, and the US, where Congress on Friday dialled up the pressure by fast-tracking the new banking sanctions. However, US President Donald Trump still needs to sign the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, and has not said if he will.

The move targets Chinese officials and the Hong Kong police, making US sanctions against them mandatory if they are identified in two consecutive reports as impeding Hong Kong’s freedoms.

The act would also punish banks by blocking loans from the US if they conducted “significant transactions” with people identified as infringing on the city’s autonomy.

Beijing said it “deplores and firmly opposes” the US act. “We urge the US to grasp the reality of the situation, stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and implementing the negative bill, otherwise we will take strong countermeasures,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian warned.

US Vice President Mike Pence said China’s security law was “unacceptable to freedom-loving people”.

Former colonial power Britain has said the law breaches Beijing’s “One Country, Two Systems” promise to grant Hong Kongers key liberties until 2047, a promise made as the city was handed back to Beijing in 1997.

AFP

WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden will be portrayed as the ultimate Washington insider who “decimated working families and betrayed black Americans”, according to a blueprint for President Donald Trump’s re-election strategy outlined by his campaign manager.

Brad Parscale claimed Mr Biden, 77, had generated none of the enthusiasm shown by Mr Trump’s supporters and had a long record of “terrible policy decisions” that would be hammered home to voters before the November election.

Mr Biden is comfortably ahead of Mr Trump in recent opinion polls, following the

President’s perceived mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and missteps during the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody in May.

Mr Trump, 74, was buoyed on Thursday by better-thanexpected job figures, claiming the only thing that could reverse the recovering economy was “a bad president or a president who wants to raise taxes” as curbs are imposed in some states due to surging infections. Despite a lead of 12 points for Mr Biden in the latest opinion poll, conducted by Monmouth University, Mr Parscale claimed Mr Trump was ahead where it mattered.

“When it comes to the most important factor, enthusiasm, President Trump is dominating,” Mr Parscale wrote in The Washington Post. “The unprecedented enthusiasm behind the President’s re-election efforts stands in stark contrast to the flat, almost non-existent enthusiasm for Biden.”

Mr Parscale is credited with helping Mr Trump win key states in 2016 by targeting advertising and social media messages at selected voters.

He also insisted that after four years in office, Mr Trump “remains the political outsider” against Mr Biden.