Our foreign relations with China are close to breaking as the Trump regime points their fingers in the former's chest and Trump's most recent actions may have given China all they need -- as far public relations is concerned -- to begin their takeover of Hong Kong.
The chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, spoke to the media last night where she said the United States has "double standards" for ourselves and for foreign governments.
And she's not wrong about this particular point.
“They are very concerned about their own national security, but on our national security...they look through tinted glasses,” Lam told a weekly news conference.
“In the U.S., we see how the riots were being handled by the local governments, compared to the stance they adopted when almost the same riots happened in Hong Kong last year.”
Having lost patience with Hong Kong after large-scale and often-violent pro-democracy protests in the Chinese-ruled city last year, Beijing authorities last month advanced plans to introduce laws tackling secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference.
It's true; the Trump regime and even Trump himself directly supported protesters in Hong Kong through his notorious Twitter account; declaring that the United States is 'with the protestors.'
Last night, however, Trump was not with our own protesters. The Trump regime attacked peaceful protesters outside the White House yesterday evening just so Trump could walk across the street and pose for pictures in front of a church. He didn't even go in the church.
That's just one example, of course, in a sea of bad faith. For the Trump regime, American "exceptionalism" means the rules that everyone else must play by do not apply to us. The White House cannot tell China how to conduct their affairs if we don't practice what we preach. Even today and as of this morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is hectoring the Chinese government and nothing could possibly feel more empty or hollow than that. Why should they give a single shit what we say? Why should anyone?
What happens here inside the United States does not happen in a vacuum. Other countries are watching and what they see is a United States that cannot talk down to or lecture anyone with much credibility. If we're setting an example for anyone, it's a bad example. Trump is lowering the bar of acceptable behavior and it will have consequences for many years after he is gone.
We might elect Joe Biden and restore some of our sanity in November, but other countries won't have an opportunity to undo the damage that is carried out with the implicit blessing of Trump's own lawlessness.