Democracy protests in Hong Kong have been going on for months now, and China is itching to crack down on it. But so far, Beijing has been kept in check by international pressure from countries that it does business with, primarily the U.S.
In fact, as promised, President Donald Trump and his trade negotiations team just partially delivered on a long-sought trade deal with the Communist giant on Friday, announcing a so-called ‘truce’ in the ongoing trade war as the administration agreed to halt new increases in tariffs and the Chinese agreed to massive purchases of U.S. agricultural products and other reforms. (Related: What’s next? Will the NBA announce a new plan to make official basketballs out of organs harvested from Chinese gulag prisons?)
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1183021805570801665
But while this president delivers on his ‘get tough’ approach with China, American companies continue to undermine his efforts because to them, making a dollar is a lot more important than supporting democracy or human rights and decency.
Google, Apple bail because Red Chinese money is greener
According to the Hong Kong Free Press, anti-Trump tech behemoth Google pulled a role-playing app from its Google Play Store that was described as “the biggest international promotional campaign in the world” for the ongoing democracy protests within three days after its creator announced it was available for download.
Google said it suspended the app because it somehow violated the platform’s “sensitive events policy.”
The news site described the game:
The Revolution of Our Times is a choice-based story game where the player takes on the role of a Hong Kong protester. The protagonist is tired and frustrated from the failure of the 2014 Umbrella Movement in seeking universal suffrage, but is considering participation in the scheduled protest on June 9, 2019 amid the increasingly fractious extradition bill debate.
Each decision has consequences for the city’s public opinion, for the player’s skills and attributes, and even for his romantic relationships.
As is the case with genuine Hong Kong protesters, players could purchase protective gear and weapons. Also, in the game there was the always-present danger of being arrested, killed, or loss of public support — which are the same dangers real protesters face.
The game developer, who uses a pseudonym “Spinner of Yarns,” is an IT professional who quite his job to work on the game for more than a month. The Hong Kong Free Press said 80 percent of the earnings from the game have been pledged to a legal defense fund for protesters arrested by Chinese authorities, Spark Alliance.
Meanwhile, as reported by Infowars, another American tech giant, Apple — which builds most of its iPhones and other devices in Communist China — deleted a police-tracking app that was being used by Hong Kong protesters to guard against being arrested. The deletion came a day after Chinese state-run media (which is all of it) complained about Apple and the app.
The Chinese media called the app, which was similar to the U.S.-based navigation app called Waze, an “accomplice to the rioters.”
“The developers of the map app had not hidden their malicious motive in providing ‘navigation’ for the rioters,” The People’s Daily stated, as reported by The Daily Caller. “Apple chose to approve the app in the App Store in Hong Kong at this point. Does this mean Apple intended to be an accomplice to the rioters?”
In a statement, Apple said the app has been “used to target and ambush police,” while calling users “criminals.” It’s clear which side the tech giant is on.
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