Politics

Chinese official tells US to mind its own business on Hong Kong

One of China’s top diplomats said Wednesday that Americans like Mitch McConnell should heed President Trump’s view that the demonstrations rocking Hong Kong are an internal matter for the Chinese — and that everybody else should butt out.

“President Trump called it China’s internal affairs, and [said] they’re going to deal with it themselves,” Huang Ping, China’s counsel general in New York, told The Post in an exclusive sit-down interview with the editorial board.

“Our hope is that Americans should follow his order, and match deeds with words of the president.”

Huang was responding to an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal by Senate Majority Leader McConnell — whose wife, US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, was born in Taiwan — titled “We Stand with Hong Kong” in response to the months-long pro-democracy protests.

“That’s the answer” to McConnell, Huang said about his pro-Trump statement, adding that no other country had a right to interfere with China or its territory’s affairs.

“Hong Kong is part of China, right, and it’s purely China’s internal affairs. No foreign country, no foreign politician should interfere,” said Huang, who was appointed to his post in November after two previous stints in the US as a rep for the Communist government.

Trump, who since has called for a peaceful and humane end to the protests, said on Aug. 1 that it was an internal Chinese matter that President Xi Jinping could easily handle.

“That’s between Hong Kong and that’s between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China,” he said.

Huang said a “silent” majority of Hong Kong’s residents does not support the protesters, and that he hoped the demonstrations would end peacefully.

“The fundamental issue right now is to stop the violence and to restore order and the rule of law,” he said.

The demonstrations began in spring, originally over a proposed law backed by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam that would allow criminal suspects to be transferred to the mainland for possible discipline, where penalties are far harsher.

But Huang called the extradition law “a dead issue,” even though Lam has only said that the proposal was being ­suspended.

“It’s a dead issue they are making use of to promote their own agenda,” he said of the demonstrators, many of whom have been demanding independence from China.

Under the separation agreement when Britain returned Hong Kong to China, mainland Chinese troops can be dispatched to the territory only if Hong Kong officials request their help.

But Huang acknowledged that China’s Liberation Army already has a “garrison” of thousands of soldiers and other personnel stationed in the city.

“That’s part of China, that’s China’s internal affairs. We can have troops there,” he said, adding that China had “all kinds of means by law” to deal with the situation should it get worse.

Huang Ping
Huang PingXinhua via ZUMA Wire

Huang also asserted that the trade war was hurting American consumers and importers more than it was hurting his own country.

“It makes goods imported from China more expensive, that’s for sure, and the American customers are going to suffer,” Huang said.

“That hurts both sides, but I think it’s American customer and importer who suffer” more, he added.

And despite Team Trump’s claims that China was paying the tariffs, Huang insisted that it was actually US consumers or importers footing the bill.

“The politicians say the Chinese are paying for all of this. It’s not true,” he said.