Trump Promised Silence on Hong Kong Protests

“During a private phone call in June, President Trump promised Chinese President Xi Jinping that the US would remain quiet on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong while trade talks continued,” CNN reports.

“The remarkable pledge to the Chinese leader is a dramatic departure from decades of US support for human rights in China and shows just how eager Trump is to strike a deal with Beijing as the trade war weighs on the US economy.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports Hong Kong’s embattled leader “invoked emergency powers to ban face masks, deploying a rarely used law that could inflame tensions and erode confidence in a city that depends heavily on international business and tourism.”