Trump tells China that crackdown on Hong Kong will harm trade

DONALD TRUMP has warned China that a violent crackdown in Hong Kong would imperil any trade deal with the US, saying he wants to see a “humanitarian” solution to the unrest.

The United States president hinted he would like to see Beijing resolve the continuing protests in the city-state before any trade deal is struck.

The pro-democracy movement has rocked Hong Kong, the region’s major financial hub, with massive demonstrations over the past three months.

“I would like to see Hong Kong worked out in a very humanitarian fashion,” Mr Trump told reporters. “I think it would be very good for the trade deal.”

Larry Kudlow, Mr Trump’s chief economic adviser, said trade deputies from the US and China would speak within 10 days in the hope of bringing negotiations around to ending the current trade war. However China has shown little sign of easing its position on the protests in Hong Kong, which it has denounced as “terrorist-like” actions.

China’s influential state-controlled tabloid Global Times said yesterday that the United States could not influence China’s decisions in handling the situation in Hong Kong. “Political and public opinion elites in the US must understand that although they have the ability to instigate Hong Kong’s radical protesters and make it harder for Hong Kong to restore order, they absolutely cannot influence Beijing’s decisions on Hong Kong’s situation,” it said in an editorial.

The Global Times said China was hoping Hong Kong’s internal forces were able to restore order with the support of the central government, but that “strong intervention” from China would be the only choice if Hong Kong was unable to do so. Chinese state media has released a rap video accusing Western governments of meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs and inciting the pro-democracy rallies. The English-language song, by a government-sponsored gangsta rap group, CD Rev, bemoans “a beautiful dream turning into a nightmare”.

Using video of the most violent moments of the protests, it switches to the lyrics: “Hey democracy! Once I heard you be found in the Middle East, people were throwing bombs across the city streets,” and issues a cry to “get those foreign agents outta town.”

Last night Twitter and Facebook said they had suspended accounts linked to a covert Chinese government influence campaign to “undermine the legitimacy” of the protest movement.

Twitter said it had “reliable evidence” that 936 active accounts were part of a “coordinated state-backed operation” to “sow political discord”.