A student activist who rose to fame during Hong Kong’s Umbrella movement 5 years ago says that the U.S. government should suspend its sales of riot gear to the city to prevent human rights abuses. Joshua Wong made the comments in a Tweet on Monday, as weeks long protests in Hong Kong intensify, according to Bloomberg.
He attached photos to his Tweet on Monday showing riot police shooting at protesters and close ups of a tear gas canister that was manufactured in Homer City, Pennsylvania by NonLethal Technologies, Inc. He also tweeted out photos of rubber-bullet shells made by ALS, which is a subsidiary of Pacem Defense Co., based in Florida.
HK Riot Police fired bullet & tear gas directly at persons and indoor that made in US. I am calling US Gov for the suspension of crowd control equipment exports to HK, prevent human rights abuses.
https://t.co/eVTWOGnlQ5 pic.twitter.com/HRjWWtaCNX
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 (@joshuawongcf) July 29, 2019
“HK Riot Police fired bullet & tear gas directly at persons and indoor that made in US. I am calling US Gov for the suspension of crowd control equipment exports to HK, prevent human rights abuses,” he wrote.
Later in the day he also tweeted out gruesome injuries sustained by protesters, allegedly from “tear gas made in U.S. unleashed by HK riot police”.
Upgraded tear gas made in US unleashed by HK riot police yesterday. It caused protester injured seriously.
(https://t.co/XlQlOZYrPN)[Activist Calls on U.S. to Stop Selling Tear Gas to Hong Kong by White House Petition: https://t.co/eVTWOGnlQ5] pic.twitter.com/1hRdgLOvME
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 (@joshuawongcf) July 29, 2019
He said in an interview that he tweeted the photos not specifically to target the two companies, but because it appeared that they were being used in Hong Kong for the first time last weekend.
Wong said: “One year ago, who would have imagined the police in Hong Kong would attack ordinary citizens with such extreme force? Governments and companies should not allow the police to use their equipment to harm ordinary citizens and peaceful protesters.”
The attention from the prominent activist could put pressure on the U.S. businesses as the protests move into their ninth straight weekend. Injuries have been reported among demonstrators and police. Other companies, like Cartier-owner Richemont and Television Broadcasts Ltd. have also been subject to fallout from the unrest in Hong Kong, which has cause some store closures and put companies under the microscope for criticism on social media.
Wong’s tweet also included a link to a petition he created directed at the White House for the same purpose. As of writing, the petition had over 75,000 signatures of the 100,000 necessary to get a response from the White House.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/319cVUp Tyler Durden