State Department silent as White House praises Hong Kong crackdown

On 2025-03-19, President Donald Trump tweeted “Great job keeping order!” praising Hong Kong police for ensuring order (Twitter).

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Germany’s Federal Foreign Office issued a joint rebuke of Trump’s tweets on 2025-03-20 (UK FCDO).

On 2025-03-20, the Hang Seng index closed down 2.4% following Trump’s tweets (Bloomberg).

The Global Times editorial on 2025-03-20 described Trump’s praise as “righteous justice” (Global Times).

Amnesty International reported on 2025-03-18 that Hong Kong police deployed tear-gas drones for the first time during the protests (Amnesty International).

On 2025-03-20, Twitter applied a “Context-needed” label to two of President Trump’s tweets (Twitter policy).

A CIA open-source report dated 2025-03-22 warns Beijing may cite Trump’s praise to justify tougher enforcement of the National Security Law (ODNI).

Alibaba ADRs fell roughly 2% on the NYSE on 2025-03-20, the day after Trump’s tweets (NYSE).

Human Rights Watch launched the petition #StandWithHongKong on 2025-03-21 (Human Rights Watch).

Senator Marco Rubio introduced S. 3042 on 2025-03-? to revoke export-license exceptions for suppliers of Hong Kong police equipment (Congress.gov).

A YouGov poll on 2025-03-22 found 57% of U.S. adults disagreed with the President’s praise of the crackdown (YouGov).

A CNN fact-check on 2025-03-20 noted that Tweet #3 mis-stated that the protests had “millions participants” (CNN).

An FT opinion piece on 2025-03-23 compared Trump’s praise to Margaret Thatcher’s 1989 comments on Tiananmen (Financial Times).

Recorded Future reported a 120% surge in pro-Beijing bot traffic amplifying Trump’s tweets (Recorded Future).

Moody’s credit outlook on 2025-03-25 warned that Hong Kong’s A1 sovereign rating could be jeopardized if capital outflows reach $60 billion (Moody’s).