Los Angeles Times - 07.08.2019

LATIMES.COM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019A

THE WORLD

HONG KONG — A day
after a citywide strike
evolved into chaotic clashes
between police and pro-
testers and residents across
Hong Kong, the Chinese
government, Hong Kong po-
lice and a group of protesters
held news conferences push-
ing dueling narratives on
what had happened.
Beijing issued its sharp-
est warning so far to Hong
Kong protesters, calling
them “arrogant lunatics”
who should not underesti-
mate the central govern-
ment’s “immense force,” but
did not take any new mea-
sures to control the situa-
tion.
“We warn that tiny mi-
nority of unscrupulous, vi-
olent, illegal actors and the
black hands behind them:
Those who play with fire will
burn in it themselves. The
punishment they deserve is
imminent!” said Yang
Guang, spokesman for the
State Council’s Office of
Hong Kong and Macao Af-
fairs in a news conference.
Hundreds of thousands
of Hong Kong residents have
been protesting since June
over plans — since sus-
pended — for an extradition
law making it easier to trans-
fer criminal defendants to
mainland China. Under
terms of its 1997 handover
from Britain, Hong Kong is a
semiautonomous territory
of China.
Yang said the Chinese
government and “all Chi-
nese people” supported
Hong Kong’s chief executive,
Carrie Lam, and that she
would not resign. He praised
Hong Kong police and re-
peated last week’s message
that Hong Kong must return
to “law and order.”
Yang did not rule out the
possibility of military
intervention by the People’s
Liberation Army but said
that the Hong Kong govern-
ment and police were “fully
capable” of restoring stabil-
ity.
“The PLA is a strong

force that defends every inch

of its sacred territory,” Yang

said, but added that China’s

military will act according to

Hong Kong law, which pro-

hibits military interference

unless requested by the

Hong Kong government.

Police forces in Shen-

zhen, the closest Chinese

city across the border from

Hong Kong, held an anti-riot

drill Tuesday.

Riot police bearing

shields and batons faced off

in a cloud of tear gas against

mock protesters wearing

black T-shirts and yellow

hard hats in a seemingly

pointed message to Hong

Kong protesters, who often

dress that way.

State media said the drill

was in preparation for festiv-

ities marking the 70th anni-

versary of the People’s Re-

public of China, which will be

celebrated on Oct. 1.

The Communist Party-

run state is planning a major

celebration meant to show-

case the nation’s strength

and military power, and has

been especially sensitive to

any perceived disrespect of

China in preceding months.

State propaganda has fo-

cused on Hong Kong pro-

testers’ removal of two Chi-

nese national flags that they

threw into Victoria Harbor,

for example, spreading na-

tionalistic hashtags on Chi-

nese social media in re-

sponse.

Yang said: “1.4 billion Chi-

nese people are all standard

bearers. They defend the na-

tional flag.”

Protesters also held a

news conference Tuesday

for the first time since the

anti-extradition bill move-

ment began.

Three anonymous speak-

ers wearing yellow hard hats

and masks spoke to report-

ers in an office building in

Mong Kok, a busy market

area where marches and

clashes have taken place.

The news conference was

organized through LIHKG,

a Reddit-like social forum

that protesters have used to

plan actions, and broadcast

live via local media on Face-

book.

The speakers called it a

“citizens’ press conference,”

saying they were affiliated

with no political organiza-

tion and did not represent

all protesters, but wanted to

create a platform for peo-

ple’s voices.

“This platform aims to

act as a counterweight to the

government’s monopoly on

the political discourse,” one

speaker said. “As the Chi-

nese saying goes, rulers

should not be left

unchecked.”

The speakers disputed a

claim that Hong Kong’s fi-

nancial secretary, Paul

Chan, had made about pro-

tests damaging Hong

Kong’s economy, saying the

slowdown had begun

months before the protests

and that external factors

such as the U.S.-China trade

war were to blame.

They said Hong Kong’s

core value was “autonomy,”

in contrast to Lam’s and Bei-

jing’s statements that Hong

Kong’s core value is the “rule

of law” enforced by police.

“We call on the govern-

ment to return the govern-

ment back to the people,”

one speaker read from a

statement, adding that the

government was ignoring

the political crisis’ root

causes and empowering po-

lice abuse of power against

civilians.

The speakers read a list

of alleged police abuses of

power, saying that the use of

tear gas and rubber bullets

was excessive and that po-

lice had assaulted civilians

and colluded with organized

criminal gangs, alluding to

mob attacks on protesters at

a mass transit station in July

and in two neighborhoods

Monday night.

Police had lost their self-

discipline and were acting

like “enemies against the

public,” a speaker said.

Hong Kong police an-

nounced that they had ar-

rested 148 protesters on

Monday in addition to 420

people arrested since the

protests began.

Police said they fired 800

tear gas rounds, 140 rubber

bullets and 20 sponge bullets

Monday in addition to a total

of 1,000 tear gas rounds and

160 rubber bullets previously

used since June 9.

China sharply warns protesters

Amid a war of words,

Beijing threatens

Hong Kongers with

its ‘immense force.’

By Alice Su

PROTESTERSsquare off with Hong Kong police Monday. The two sides held news conferences offering conflicting versions of events.

Anthony WallaceAFP/Getty Images

CARACAS, Venezuela —
U.S. national security advis-
or John Bolton pressed his
case Tuesday for sweeping
action against Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro,
warning foreign govern-
ments and companies that
they could face retaliation in
the U.S. if they continue to
do business with his admin-
istration.
Bolton’s comments came
after the White House froze
all Venezuelan government
assets in the U.S. late Mon-
day, putting the country on a
short list of U.S. adversaries,
including Cuba, North Ko-
rea and Iran, that have been
targeted by such aggressive
financial measures.
“The Maduro regime now
joins that exclusive club of
rogue states,” Bolton said at
a one-day conference in
Lima, Peru, of more than 50
governments largely aligned
against Maduro.
The broad ban blocking
companies and individuals
from doing business with
Maduro’s government and
its top supporters took ef-
fect immediately and is the
first of its kind in the West-
ern Hemisphere since an as-
set freeze against Manuel
Noriega’s government in
Panama and a trade em-
bargo on the Sandinista
leadership in Nicaragua in
the 1980s.
“We are sending a signal
to third parties that want to
do business with the
Maduro regime: Proceed
with extreme caution,”
Bolton said. “There is no

need to risk your business in-

terests with the United

States for the purposes of

profiting from a corrupt and

dying regime.”

Although the order falls

short of an outright trade

embargo — notably, it

spares Venezuela’s still siz-

able private sector — it rep-

resents the most sweeping

U.S. action to remove

Maduro since the Trump ad-

ministration recognized op-

position leader Juan Guaido

as Venezuela’s rightful

leader in January.

Critically, it also exposes

foreign entities doing busi-

ness with the Maduro gov-

ernment to so-called sec-

ondary sanctions in the U.S.

— a fact not lost on Maduro’s

government as it tries to

rally support at home and

abroad.

“The U.S. has to under-

stand once and for all that

they aren’t the owners of the

world,” Vice President Delcy

Rodriguez said in a state-

ment from Caracas, the Ven-

ezuelan capital. “Every

country that has invest-

ments in the U.S. should be

very worried because this

sets a dangerous precedent

against private property.”

Flanked by Defense Min-

ister Vladimir Padrino,

whom the U.S. has tried to

woo into betraying Maduro,

Rodriguez said the sanc-

tions would only bring more

hardship on the Venezuelan

people without weakening

the socialist revolution.

She also posited that

Washington’s real aim is to

sabotage negotiations in

Barbados with the opposi-

tion aimed at resolving the

country’s protracted politi-

cal and economic crisis.

A senior Trump adminis-

tration official said the tim-

ing of the sanctions reflects

the U.S. assessment that

those talks, which started in

May and are being spon-

sored by Norway, are going

nowhere and being used by

the Maduro government to

buy time. The official spoke

on condition of anonymity

because he wasn’t author-

ized to comment on the

talks.

In a further sign of ten-

sions, Venezuela also ac-

cused the U.S. of “hostile and

illegal incursions” by send-

ing military aircraft and a

ship into its air and mar-

itime territory. By letter,

Venezuela urged the United

Nations Security Council to

investigate “dangerous” U.S.

actions that threaten war

while behaving like an “out-

law state.”

The executive order

signed by President Trump

justified the financial move

by citing Maduro’s “contin-

ued usurpation of power”

and human rights abuses by

security forces loyal to him.

Maduro’s foreign sup-

porters staunchly de-

nounced the move.

Konstantin Kosachev,

the head of the Russian up-

per house’s international af-

fairs committee, accused the

U.S. of “international ban-

ditry,” while Cuban Presi-

dent Miguel Diaz-Canel ex-

pressed solidarity with

Maduro and Venezuelans,

accusing the U.S. of “brutal

cruelty” through a “block-

ade” that should not be al-

lowed.

But even some U.S. allies

could be affected by the

move, which Bolton ac-

knowledged has been used

only sparingly in the last half

a century.

A number of European

corporations, including

Spanish oil company Repsol

and Air France, continue to

operate in Venezuela and

could see their U.S. assets

seized unless they cut ties

with the government. India

and China are major buyers

of crude from state-run oil

giant PDVSA. All of the com-

panies rely on the U.S. to

process financial payments.

The European Union and

Canada banded together in

April to sharply criticize a

U.S. decision to lift a two-

decade ban on lawsuits

against foreign firms op-

erating on properties Cuba

seized from Americans after

Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolu-

tion.

The real-life impact of the

new sanctions on regular

Venezuelans remains to be

seen. The moribund econo-

my has been suffering for

years from six-digit hyperin-

flation, widespread shortag-

es and a deep contraction

that surpasses that of the

Great Depression in the U.S.

Previous sanctions tar-

geting the South American

nation’s oil industry, the

source of almost all of its ex-

port earnings, have already

accelerated a crash in oil

production that started

with Maduro’s election in

2013 after the death of his

mentor Hugo Chavez.

More than 100 officials

and government insiders

also have had their U.S. as-

sets frozen and blocked from

doing business with Ameri-

cans. As part of the execu-

tive order, Americans or U.S.

firms that do business with

such individuals face penal-

ties. The same Maduro sup-

porters will also be banned

from entering the U.S.

Exceptions will be al-

lowed for the delivery of

food, medicine and clothing.

Transactions with Venezue-

la’s still sizable private sec-

tor are also spared, although

it’s possible even legitimate

transactions will be affected

as U.S. and foreign compa-

nies and banks exhibit an ex-

cess of caution.

“The truth is that no fi-

nancial institution wants to

run afoul of the Treasury De-

partment,” said Geoff Ram-

sey, a researcher at the

Washington Office on Latin

America, urging the U.S. to

robustly support the nego-

tiations sponsored by Nor-

way rather than sanctions.

It is unclear how the ac-

tions will affect American oil

giant Chevron, which last

month received a three-

month exemption from the

U.S. Treasury to allow it to

continue drilling for oil with

oil monopoly PDVSA.

Guaido celebrated the

U.S. action, saying it would

protect Houston oil com-

pany Citgo, Venezuela’s

most valuable overseas as-

set, from attempts by Madu-

ro to mortgage its assets.

“Any individual, com-

pany, institution or nation

that tries to do business with

the regime will be seen by

the international justice sys-

tem as collaborating with

and sustaining a dictator-

ship,” Guaido said in a series

of late-night Twitter state-

ments Monday. “They will be

subject to sanctions and

considered an accomplice to

crimes.”

U.S. presses case for isolating Venezuela

Bolton threatens

retaliation against

nations or firms that

violate trade ban.

associated press

THE U.S. financial sanction directed at the government of President Nicolas

Maduro is the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere since the 1980s.

Federico ParraAFP/Getty Images