Over the past few months, tensions have been high between the U.S. and China. Events such as China denying USS John C. Stennis and its escort ships access to a Hong Kong port showed just how strained relations have become between the two countries, and with China's recent comments saying that U.S. activity near the Fiery Cross Reef "threatened China's sovereignty and security interests", one would assume that things couldn't get much worse.
Alas, that assumption would be wrong. As Reuters reports, China is now accusing the U.S. of trying to "disturb" social order in Hong Kong, something that Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said will "cause Chinese people to go on alert and have a bad reaction."
Channel NewsAsia has more...
BEIJING: China's Foreign Ministry on Friday accused unidentified people in the United States of trying to "disturb" social order in Hong Kong, after the U.S. State Department expressed further concern the territory's autonomy was being eroded.
The State Department made the comments in its latest report on the former British colony, released on Wednesday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that as Hong Kong was a part of China, no other country had a right to interfere in its internal affairs.
"We also remind the United States that certain people on the U.S. side have always wanted to disturb Hong Kong, disturb its socio-economic development, disturb the normal order of its residents' lives, and even use the Hong Kong issue to interfere in China's internal affairs," he told a daily news briefing.
"This can only be futile. The only effect it will have is to cause Chinese people to go on alert and have a bad reaction."
Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 under agreements that its broad freedoms, way of life and legal system would remain unchanged for 50 years.
Beijing's refusal to grant the former British colony full democracy has embittered a younger generation of activists who launched big protests in 2014.
Political tension has simmered amid occasional incidents of unrest. A riot erupted in the city in February after a dispute between authorities and street vendors.
The United States has repeatedly expressed concern about developments in Hong Kong, including freedom of the press and human rights issues.
* * *
So to summarize, the United States is antagonizing Russia, antagonizing China, and doing its very best to generate even further conflict in the Middle East. Perhaps the best indicator of how the economy is doing is not reading FOMC minutes, rather, just pay attention to how much war mongering the U.S. is doing around the world. After all, nothing solves a bad economy like a massive war - right?