Hong Kong protesters are waving American flags as a symbol of freedom (Update: Calm and safe?)

Some of the protesters in Hong Kong have been flying the American flag and even singing our anthem to make a statement about their desire for freedom from communist China:

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This protester (2nd clip below) explained that the American flag represented freedom, human rights, and democracy. He added, “We hope we can be friends with America.”

Yesterday I wrote about the shutdown of the Hong Kong airport and there were protesters there flying the American flag as well:

As you might imagine, this plays into the hands of mainland China. A China Daily editorial last month suggested that the use of the flag shows the US is orchestrating a “color revolution” against the mainland. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman also suggested the same:

Last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying accused unnamed US officials of stoking violent chaos in Hong Kong: “We can see that US officials are even behind such incidents. So, can the officials tell the world what role did they play and what are their aims?” she asked during a regular press briefing.

This is the oldest play in the tyrant’s playbook. In fact, Venezuela’s dictator is doing the same thing right now and for the same reason. Blaming outsiders for fomenting unrest is an easy way to dismiss your critics at home as traitors.

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And the critics aren’t just writing newspaper pieces. Yesterday a reporter captured this incident at the airport. Two men (one of whom is wearing a Chinese flag hat and has a GoPro camera mounted on his chest) started yelling at protesters holding an American flag (top video). In the second clip, the guy in dark clothes gets really worked up. According to the reporter, he’s yelling “DNLM.” I had to look that up in the urban dictionary but it’s Cantonese profanity.

The protesters had an answer. “Democracy is a good thing.”

The reactions to this thread were very interesting. There are communists using this to trash the protesters:

By the way, “The Lenin of Love” has to be the dumbest handle for a communist in the history of Twitter. Twitter is blocked in mainland China so there won’t be a big reaction either way from people there. But there are also people (albeit her in the US) who seem to get it:

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Ultimately, it’s a small minority of protesters who are carrying US flags but the freedom from tyranny that the protesters are obviously seeking seems like a very American impulse.

Update: Things are getting very dicey at Hong Kong airport with police trying to clear protesters and some protesters are fighting back. From Buzzfeed, this scuffle could easily have resulted in a police shooting:

Update: President Trump takes notice of the build-up of Chinese military near Hong Kong. What does “Everyone should be calm and safe!” mean in this situation?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1161325870516264961

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