Stocks took a dip Thursday after President Donald Trump said he would soon be hosting a press conference on China.
Trump is expected to address both China’s mishandling of the coronavirus and its recent takeover of Hong Kong. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday that Hong Kong was “no longer autonomous” from communist China, heralding the end of democracy in the city. The DOW Jones Average lost all of its Thursday gains following Trump’s announcement, according to CNBC.
The Trump administration has toyed with consequences for China’s handling of the coronavirus for weeks, but it hasn’t made any concrete policy announcements. China’s unprecedented aggression into Hong Kong may change that. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Josh Hawley Says China’s National Security Law ‘Will Mean The End Of Democracy In Hong Kong’)
The Chinese Communist Party imposed new national security restrictions on Hong Kong last week, leading to massive protests and Chinese authorities arresting hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators.
U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., Apr. 8, 2020. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
“Beijing’s disastrous decision is only the latest in a series of actions that fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms and China’s own promises to the Hong Kong people under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a U.N.-filed international treaty,” Pompeo said in a Wednesday statement.
Hong Kong has for decades been a stronghold of Western-style democracy within communist China, but Chinese Leader Xi Jinping’s regime has increasingly encroached on its autonomy.
Trump announced the press conference during a briefing on the upcoming hurricane season in the U.S., minutes before he was scheduled to sign an executive order regarding social media.
Trump has been highly critical of social media giants since Twitter placed fact-check labels on two of his tweets for the first time this weekend. The tweets pertained to mail-in ballots, which Trump and Republicans say encourage voter fraud. Twitter labelled the tweets “potentially misleading,” and Trump accused the company of interfering in the election. (RELATED: Twitter Says It Will Not Remove Trump’s Tweets About Scarborough’s Dead Intern)
It was reported Saturday that Trump was considering the formation of a panel to handle complaints of anti-conservative bias on social media, according to the Wall St. Journal.