The US State Department has released a statement in response to Chinese officials and state media accusing a US diplomatic official based in Hong Kong of interfering in Chinese affairs. State media widely reported on a viral photo showing US foreign service agent Julie Eadeh – identified as the political unit chief of the US Consulate General – meeting with leading anti-Beijing activists at a Hong Kong hotel on Tuesday amid continuing unrest in the semi-autonomous city.
Embarrassing! The black hand was caught red-handed! Leaders of “HK independence” organization met with Julie Eadeh of US Consulate General in HK. She is a subversion expert at the State Department. The Chinese people are not afraid of evil, nor are they afraid of causing trouble. pic.twitter.com/svtrbJC0Z8
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) August 8, 2019
A State Department spokesperson on Thursday afternoon issued a statement calling China a “thuggish regime” for releasing details on the US diplomat stationed in Hong Kong.
“I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children, I don’t think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,” spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told a news briefing. “That is not how a responsible nation would behave.”
Multiple Chinese state media reporters previously referred to Eadeh as a “subversion expert” who is in contact with Hong Kong protest organizers in order to fuel chaos and unrest in the city. – READ MORE