Cruz shows solidarity with protesters in Hong Kong

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz used his trip to Asia this weekend to bring more attention to the ongoing strife in Hong Kong.

“I’ll tell you, what’s happening here in Hong Kong is inspiring,” the Houston-area Republican said in a nationally televised interview on Sunday.

Cruz has been on a nearly weeklong Indo-Pacific tour that has had him in Hawaii and Japan. On Saturday, he was in Hong Kong, where he dressed in all black to support protesters there. Since the summer, pro-democracy protesters have been wearing black in opposition to the city’s leader.

“We’ve seen over two million people come to the streets standing up for freedom, standing up for democracy and standing up against the oppression of the Chinese Communist regime,” Cruz said in a recorded interview on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday. “I think it is very much in the United States’ interests to support the people of Hong Kong. I’m here, I’m dressed in all black standing in solidarity with the protesters.”

Cruz said despite some assertions that the pro-democracy protests are dying down, he saw the opposite: “The protests are continuing full force.”

Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also had more sharp words for the NBA for its handling of Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s tweet in support of Hong Kong.

“Sadly, what ended up happening is the NBA as a league began this series of apologies,” Cruz said. “And it was really sad to see an American company and, indeed, a global sports league like the NBA, being dragooned into censoring the free speech of American citizens in the interest of big bucks.”