Letters to the Editor: It’s un-American of Trump not to stand with Hong Kong protesters

To the editor: As a lifelong Republican, I have forgiven President Trump for many errors. However, his indifference toward the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong now leaves me with the resolve to support a challenger in the 2020 Republican primary.

The United States is different from other countries because of our consistent support for people seeking freedom. Our State Department supported freedom for Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia consistently after the Soviet Union’s occupation of those countries in 1940, to cite just one example.

Trump is now cynically saying that a trade adjustment with China and avoiding a recession trumps the democratic aspirations of Hong Kong residents who were promised “one country, two systems” when Great Britain withdrew in 1997. Finding that this rhetoric of autonomy is the equivalent of a bounced check issued by the communists in Beijing, the citizens of Hong Kong are protesting and appealing for help.

We don’t need or want a war with China, but American credibility with the Pacific nations will be nil if we turn a blind eye to the oppression of Hong Kong. I will go to the wall for freedom for Hong Kong, and that should be the policy of a Republican president as well.

Richard C. Sipan, Green Valley, Ariz.

To the editor: When Trump was said to have suggested privately that the U.S. should invade Venezuela to remove President Nicolas Maduro from office, he was called an imperialist by some in the media.

Now, when he does not want to meddle in China’s internal affairs vis a vis the Hong Kong conflict, he makes America weak.

Poor Trump. Everything he does or says is used against him.

Vilen Chernyak, West Hollywood