China- USA Relations: China condemns US bills supporting Hong Kong protesters - by Grace Shao,Christine Wang, and Evelyn Cheng

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday the U.S. has “sinister intentions” and its “plot” is “doomed to fail,” after President Donald Trump signed two bills supporting Hong Kong protesters into law.

Read more at: China condemns US bills supporting Hong Kong protesters

China-US relations: Hong Kong: China slams US bill backing protesters

In a nod to pro-democracy protesters, US Congress has passed two bills supporting human rights in Hong Kong. China has threatened unspecified countermeasures if the bills become law.

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/hong-kong-china-slams-us-bill-backing-protesters/a-51342263

Hong Kong - the party is over as Chinese troops massing near the border

Troops at the border: A Chinese military intervention in Hong Kong? Video and satellite images released this week show Chinese military troops massing near the border with Hong Kong. Is it just an exercise in intimidation or is there a real threat of a Chinese military intervention?

Read more at: 

https://www.france24.com/en/20190814-troops-border-china-military-intervention-hong-kong

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China rejects US warships to visit Hong Kong as tensions rise

China Rejects U.S. Warship’s Visit to Hong Kong as Tensions Rise

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China - Hong Kong: With peace and love: Hong Kong rises - by Lily Ho

Western media outlets have described Hong Kong’s wave of unrest as predominantly led by students. It has a much wider base. Months of steady canvassing and campaigning, and promotion of emotive symbolism over violence, have garnered enormous sympathy for the Occupy movement.

Read more: openDemocracy

China: Hong Kong police use tear gas to disperse thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators - financial sector shuts down

A video of a young girl desperately calling on the world to help Hong Kong has emerged, ssued a low-level travel warning to its citizens traveling in Hong Kong, warning of “significant disruption to traffic and public transport services.”
 
The video titled ‘Hong Kongese: Please help Hong Kong’ has had more than 400,000 views on YouTube alone, and features Glacier Kwong, a Hong Kong University student, looking straight into the camera as she called on the world to help her country.

“As a Hongkonger standing here in Wan Chai, I ask all of you from all over the world: please help us,” she said.

“You are born with democracy choices and have free election rights, but we don’t. Please help us. Please spread the news all over the world.”

“We are just innocent people like you. We are just trying to protect the people in government house. We don’t want to see any tragedy performing on once safest city on the planet, like those happened in Syria, Ukraine and China. Maybe all of you are born in democracy States, you are born with democratic election, you have free election right, but we don’t.

“We need genuine democracy. We need a popvote on the constitution reform only, nothing more.”


Read more: Hong Kong police use tear gas to disperse thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators

PRISM NSA SPY PROGRAM: Snowden requests asylum in South America

The former National Security Agency contractor wanted for revealing classified secrets is seeking asylum in the South American country of Ecuador, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said Sunday.

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks also announced that Edward Snowden “is bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from WikiLeaks.” The organization’s founder Julian Assange, was granted asylum by Ecuador last year and has been staying at the country’s embassy in the United Kingdom.

Snowden was on an Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow Sunday and was booked on a flight to Cuba on Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported, citing unnamed airline officials. The reports said he intended to travel from Cuba to Caracas, Venezuela. There was also speculation that he might try to reach Ecuador.

Read more: Snowden requests asylum in South America - The Globe and Mail

PRISM - NSA: Russia Says It Would Consider Asylum For Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden

Russia would consider granting asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

Snowden fled the United States after leaking information about the NSA's secret surveillance of phone records and information collected by Internet providers. After revealing his identity to the public, he said that he had sought refuge in Hong Kong, and was hoping "to seek asylum in a country with shared values."

Snowden has not made any requests for asylum yet, but Peskov told Russian newspaper Kommersant, "If such an appeal is given, it will be considered."

"We'll act according to facts," he said. The Guardian reported Tuesday that the statement prompted other Russian officials to declare their support for Snowden. As the newspaper noted, the country has a poor record for human rights and free speech, but has been known to support critics of the United States.

The revelation that Snowden fled to Hong Kong has ignited debate about whether it was a wise choice. Some experts argue that Hong Kong's government will likely hand him over to the United States, citing the treaty that guarantees extradition with the exception of outstanding circumstances. Snowden is believed to have checked out of the hotel where he was staying on Monday, and his current whereabouts are unknown.

Note EU-Digest: maybe it would also benefit the EU to offer Mr. Snowden asylum and find out if the US, in addition to the privacy law protected information they are collecting on EU Citizens, are also collecting classified economic and industrial data from EU member states.

Read more: Russia Says It Would Consider Asylum For Edward Snowden

Offshore Banking: Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore - by David Leigh

Millions of internal records have leaked from Britain's offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of concealing assets from his ex-wife.

The leak of 2m emails and other documents, mainly from the offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), has the potential to cause a seismic shock worldwide to the booming offshore trade, with a former chief economist at McKinsey estimating that wealthy individuals may have as much as euro 28 billion ( US $32billion) stashed in overseas havens.

In France, Jean-Jacques Augier, President François Hollande's campaign co-treasurer and close friend, has been forced to publicly identify his Chinese business partner. It emerges as Hollande is mired in financial scandal because his former budget minister concealed a Swiss bank account for 20 years and repeatedly lied about it.

The British Foreign Office depends on the BVI's company licensing revenue to subsidize this residual outpost of empire, while lawyers and accountants in the City of London benefit from a lucrative trade as intermediaries.

The new BVI data contains more than 200 gigabytes, covering more than a decade of financial information about the global transactions of BVI private incorporation agencies. It also includes data on their offshoots in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Cook Islands in the Pacific.

Read more: Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore | UK news | The Guardian

Sexuality: Transsexual in Hong Kong fights to marry her boyfriend

In a landmark court case in Hong Kong, a woman who used to be a man will fight for the right to marry her boyfriend. The transsexual, who remains anonymous, has been blocked from doing so by the Hong Kong authorities.


While transsexuals who have undergone surgery are allowed to marry in mainland China, the EU, the US and elsewhere, Hong Kong's Immigration Department, which runs the marriage registry, has refused her request.


For more: BBC News - Transsexual in Hong Kong fights to marry her boyfriend

Daily News: China - Massive Demonstration honors memory of Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong

Hong Kong commemoration Tiananmen Square massacre (picture from Cheung/AP)

For the complete report from the Daily News click on this link

China - Massive Demonstration honors memory of Tiananmen Square massacre in Hong Kong

A massive crowd of Chinese demonstrators gathered Thursday to honor the pro-democracy students killed in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago - but the rally was in Hong Kong, not Beijing. In Tiananmen Square, the only crowds on the vast plaza were security officers ready to silence the smallest hint of protest of what happened two decades ago. Foreign reporters were barred from entering the square, families of the victims were confined to their homes and internet sites mentioning the tragedy were scrubbed by a Chinese government that would rather it be forgotten.

But the crowd in Hong Kong remembered. "We will never forget June 4," sang a throng of as many as 150,000 people holding candles in Victoria Park. "It is the dream of all Chinese people to have democracy! Hong Kong is the only place where we can commemorate, and we have to repeat this every year so our younger generations don't forget," said Annie Chu, 36, a tourism worker who has attended every annual vigil.