As tensions mount between pro-democracy demonstrators and Chinese government officials in Hong Kong, lawmakers and the White House have largely remained silent.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has so far been the one of the few leaders to talk about about the demonstrations, which began last week and have brought tens of thousands of people to the streets in escalating confrontations with the Chinese government.
Demonstrators, many of them students, are protesting anti-democratic changes to Hong Kong’s election system.
“The people of Hong Kong deserve the right to choose their own leaders,” Pelosi said Monday on Twitter. “Instead of a crackdown, Beijing should listen to legitimate concerns.”
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, however, have not made official public statements about the protests in Hong Kong, nor have many members of Congress.
It stands in stark contrast to the congressional reaction in 2011 to pro-democracy protests that began in Egypt and spread elsewhere in the Middle East in what became known as the “Arab Spring.”
At the time, many lawmakers gave statements supporting the uprisings.
“Any place around the world where people are calling out for freedom and democracy, I think we have the responsibility to respond,” Boehner said on “Fox News Sunday” in January 2011.
Sen. John McCain at the time called the Arab uprising a “collective demand for human dignity, economic opportunity and peaceful political change.”
The Arizona Republican so far has not weighed in on the Hong Kong demonstrations.
The White House has also been subdued in reacting to the events in Hong Kong, prompting Heritage Foundation foreign policy scholar Michael Gonzalez to pen a piece for CNN titled, “Another freedom group abandoned by the U.S.”
Asked about the low-key congressional reaction, Gonzalez told the Washington Examiner that lawmakers are focused on the Nov. 4 elections, not Hong Kong’s democracy issues.
“Congress should obviously get involved and stand by the Hong Kong Policy Act, which is crystal clear in its support for Hong Kong’s democratization,” Gonzalez said. “The reality is, of course, that this is way off their radar screen. All members of the House and one-third of the Senate are busy campaigning for re-election and may not have been properly briefed on what is taking place in Hong Kong. This is why the onus needs to be on the commander in chief.”
President Obama has not officially commented on the protests, but he has talked privately about them with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his visit to the White House Wednesday. The White House also issued a statement saying it supports an open election system in Hong Kong.
Wang, meanwhile, has warned the United States to refrain from interfering, calling the matter “China’s internal affairs.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest has spent little time talking about Hong Kong during the daily press briefings, though reporters have asked few questions about the matter, instead focusing on other stories dominating the news, including presidential security breaches that on Wednesday forced Secret Service Director Julia Pierson to resign.
Earnest said Wednesday the U.S. is watching the situation in Hong Kong “very closely,” and gave a nod to the protesters in their clash with Chinese government officials over the election process.
“We believe that an open society, with the highest possible degree of autonomy and governed by the rule of law, is essential for Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity,” Earnest said, adding, “we have consistently made known our position to Beijing, and we’ll continue to do that.”
Congress is not in session, which eliminates opportunities for lawmakers to address the protests in floor speeches. Still, some have issued statements or reacted on Twitter.
Congressmembers who have commented on Hong Kong include Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the top Republican on the Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., chairman of the subcommittee, also put out a statement supporting the protesters, who he said “are doing the right thing to protect their homeland and the integrity of its democracy.”
