Could Trump's tariffs mean cheaper non-US food in Hong Kong like avocados and olive oil?
Optimists always say that with every challenge comes new opportunities.
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But with the economically illiterate US President Donald Trump single-handedly unleashing a new dawn of American protectionism, sending stock indices falling and world markets into a tailspin, things are looking bleak and may get worse.
Maybe there's a bright side to focus on, however.
For those of us in Hong Kong, which is still one of the freest ports in the world, the situation hopefully is not so bad. In fact, there might even be a chance to take advantage of the turmoil.
If French champagne makers end up selling less to the US, there are plenty of society events in Hong Kong ready to boost their consumption, Andrew Sun says. Photo: Shutterstock
Some of the countries hit hardest by tariffs are Asia's major factory producers, including Vietnam, Thailand and, of course, China. Assuming these countries' American sales will now decline, all those surplus goods will have to go somewhere else, right?
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South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong warns residents about Los Angeles unrest as Trump deploys National Guard
Hong Kong authorities have urged residents to remain vigilant and prioritise safety when travelling to the United States due to ongoing immigration-related protests in Los Angeles. Some Hongkongers living in California's largest city criticised US President Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard, stating that it would likely escalate the situation further. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's operation against illegal immigrants in Los Angeles on Friday triggered days of demonstrations by local residents, leading to clashes with law enforcement officers. Trump, who has made illegal immigration a prime focus of his presidency, ordered some 2,000 National Guard to Los Angeles during the weekend over the objections of Newsom and the city's mayor, Karen Bass, who have accused him of manufacturing a crisis. Late Monday, the US Pentagon ordered 700 members of the US Marine Corps to Los Angeles and an additional 2,000 National Guard members to quell the unrest. The extra contingent doubles the number of National Guard troops to more than 4,000. The Hong Kong government urged residents to attend to personal safety in light of protests across the country. 'The government reminds Hong Kong residents who are planning to travel to the United States, or are already there, to stay aware of the local situation, increase their vigilance, prioritise their safety, avoid crowded areas, and pay close attention to local announcements regarding the latest developments,' a spokesman said on Monday. 'Hesitant' Hongkongers worry Trump has shattered dreams of studying in US The Security Bureau's website was updated with the warning, saying protests had 'occurred across multiple cities including Los Angeles' since early June, resulting in 'violent clashes and injuries'. The government also reminded Hong Kong residents in the United States who required help to call a 24-hour hotline at (852) 1868, or reach out to the Immigration Department with its mobile app, among other means. Some Angeles-based Hongkongers defended the need for the protests. A 50-year-old university professor, who only gave his surname, Lam, said the scale of the social unrest was not even close to the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 or the Rodney King protests of 1992, sparked by a court acquitting four police officers accused of beating an unarmed black man. 'The protests are very localised,' Lam said. 'A little fire with one or two [self-driving] Waymo cars set on fire.' Lam said protesters were expressing their anger at what Trump and the immigration authorities were doing. 'Many of them live with undocumented immigrants and have done so for years. They stand by them with compassion because they want to protect their neighbours and friends who have lived peacefully in the community for years,' he said. Protesters gather with signs and flags near a federal building in Santa Ana, California, following reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on June 9, 2025. Photo: AFP Lam said he and some of his US-born colleagues had started to bring along their identity documents to avoid being mistakenly arrested. 'Even for us, because we do not look like a regular 'white person', we have started to carry a federal ID on top of our driving licence to show that we're actually citizens,' he said. 'There have been a lot of mistaken arrests; we just want to be safe.' A 29-year-old college lecturer from Hong Kong, surnamed Li, joined the protests as well as the rapid response networks to help defend immigrant workers against raids. 'While the mainstream media is demonising the protesters as 'violent rioters' defending 'criminals', what I saw instead were local community members looking to defend their families, friends and other communities from state violence,' Li said. He said he had seen rubber bullets and tear gas being fired amid the clashes. 'I do not feel safe with the federal government overriding state authority to deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles, which further exacerbates the state-sanctioned violence that is already heightening,' he said. Law, a 52-year-old Hongkonger who has lived in Los Angeles since 1991, expressed reservations about the deployment of the National Guard. 'I think it's borderline unconstitutional,' said Law, who works in marketing and lives in Santa Monica. 'The only consequence I can see with the arrival of the National Guard is that there may be an escalation, which is the opposite of the intention.'
Asia Times
an hour ago
- Asia Times
From Kent State to LA, using soldiers on civilians is high-risk
Responding to street protests in Los Angeles against federal immigration enforcement raids, President Donald Trump ordered 2,000 soldiers from the California National Guard into the city on June 7, 2025, to protect agents carrying out the raids. Trump also authorized the Pentagon to dispatch regular US troops 'as necessary' to support the California National Guard. The president's orders did not specify rules of engagement about when and how force could be used. California Governor Gavin Newsom, who did not request the National Guard and asserted it was not needed, criticized the president's decision as 'inflammatory' and warned it 'will only escalate tensions.' I am a historian who has written several books about the Vietnam War, one of the most divisive episodes in our nation's past. My recent book, 'Kent State: An American Tragedy,' examines a historic clash on May 4, 1970, between anti-war protesters and National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio. The confrontation escalated into violence: troops opened fire on the demonstrators, killing four students and wounding nine others, including one who was paralyzed for life. In my view, dispatching California National Guard troops against civilian protesters in Los Angeles chillingly echoes decisions and actions that led to the tragic Kent State shooting. Some active-duty units, as well as National Guard troops, are better prepared today than in 1970 to respond to riots and violent protests – but the vast majority of their training and their primary mission remains to fight, to kill and to win wars. Protests in Los Angeles began after federal agencies conducted immigration raids across the city on June 6, 2025. The National Guard is a force of state militias under the command of governors. It can be federalized by the president during times of national emergency or for deployment on combat missions overseas. Guardsmen train for one weekend per month and two weeks every summer. Typically, the Guard has been deployed to deal with natural disasters and support local police responses to urban unrest. Examples include riots in Detroit in 1967, Washington DC in 1968, Los Angeles in 1965 and 1992, and Minneapolis and other cities in 2020 after the death of George Floyd. Presidents rarely deploy National Guard troops without state governors' consent. The main modern exceptions occurred in the 1950s and 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, when Southern governors defied federal court orders to desegregate schools in Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. In each case, the federal government sent troops to protect Black students from crowds of white protesters. The 1807 Insurrection Act grants presidents authority to use active-duty troops or National Guard forces to restore order within the United States. President Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act. Instead, he relied on Section 12406 of Title 10 of the US Code, a narrower federal statute that allows the president to mobilize the National Guard in situations including 'rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' Trump did not limit his order to Los Angeles. He authorized armed forces to protect immigration enforcement operations at any 'locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur.' ICE officers and national guards confront protesters outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images The war in Vietnam had grown increasingly unpopular by early 1970, but protests intensified on April 30 when President Richard Nixon authorized expanding the conflict into Cambodia. At Kent State, after a noontime anti-war rally on campus on May 1, alcohol-fueled students harassed passing motorists in town and smashed storefront windows that night. On May 2, anti-war protesters set fire to the building where military officers trained Kent State students enrolled in the armed forces' Reserve Officer Training Corps program. In response, Republican Governor Jim Rhodes dispatched National Guard troops, against the advice of the university and many local officials, who understood the mood in the town of Kent and on campus far better than Rhodes did. County prosecutor Ron Kane had vehemently warned Rhodes that deploying the National Guard could spark conflict and lead to fatalities. Nonetheless, Rhodes – who was trailing in an impending Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat – struck the pose of a take-charge leader who wasn't going to be pushed around by a long-haired rabble. 'We're going to put a stop to this!' he shouted, pounding the table at a press conference in Kent on May 3. Hundreds of National Guard troops were deployed across town and on campus. University officials announced that further rallies were banned. Nonetheless, on May 4, some 2,000 to 3,000 students gathered on the campus Commons for another anti-war rally. They were met by 96 National Guardsmen, led by eight officers. There was confrontation in the air as student anger over Nixon's expansion of the war blended with resentment over the Guard's presence. Protesters chanted antiwar slogans, shouted epithets at the Guardsmen and made obscene gestures. Archival CBS News footage of the clash between campus anti-war protesters and Ohio National Guard troops at Kent State, May 4, 1970. The Guardsmen sent to Kent State had no training in de-escalating tension or minimizing the use of force. Nonetheless, their commanding officer that day, Ohio Army National Guard Assistant Adjutant General Robert Canterbury, decided to use them to break up what the Department of Justice later deemed a legal assembly. In my view, it was a reckless judgment that inflamed an already volatile situation. Students started showering the greatly outnumbered Guardsmen with rocks and other objects. In violation of Ohio Army National Guard regulations, Canterbury neglected to warn the students that he had ordered Guardsmens' rifles loaded with live ammunition. As tension mounted, Canterbury failed to adequately supervise his increasingly fearful troops – a cardinal responsibility of the commanding officer on the scene. This fundamental failure of leadership increased confusion and resulted in a breakdown of fire control discipline – officers' responsibility to maintain tight control over their troops' discharge of weapons. When protesters neared the Guardsmen, platoon sergeant Mathew McManus shouted 'Fire in the air!' in a desperate attempt to prevent bloodshed. McManus intended for troops to shoot above the students' heads to warn them off. But some Guardsmen, wearing gas masks that made it hard to hear amid the noise and confusion, only heard or reacted to the first word of McManus' order, and fired at the students. The troops had not been trained to fire warning shots, which was contrary to National Guard regulations. And McManus had no authority to issue an order to fire if officers were nearby, as they were. Many National Guardsmen who were at Kent State on May 4 later questioned why they had been deployed there. 'Loaded rifles and fixed bayonets are pretty harsh solutions for students exercising free speech on an American campus,' one of them told an oral history interviewer. Another plaintively asked me in a 2023 interview, 'Why would you put soldiers trained to kill on a university campus to serve a police function?' Doug Guthrie, a student at Kent State in 1970, looks back 54 years later at the events of May 4, 1970. National Guard equipment and training have improved significantly in the decades since Kent State. But Guardsmen are still military troops who are fundamentally trained to fight, not to control crowds. In 2020, then-National Guard Bureau Chief General Joseph Lengyel told reporters that 'the civil unrest mission is one of the most difficult and dangerous missions … in our domestic portfolio.' In my view, the tragedy of Kent State shows how critical it is for authorities to be thoughtful in responding to protests, and extremely cautious in deploying military troops to deal with them. The application of force is inherently unpredictable, often uncontrollable, and can lead to fatal mistakes and lasting human suffering. And while protests sometimes break rules, they may not be disruptive or harmful enough to merit responding with force. Aggressive displays of force, in fact, can heighten tensions and worsen situations. Conversely, research shows that if protesters perceive that authorities are acting with restraint and treating them with respect, they are more likely to remain nonviolent. The shooting at Kent State demonstrated that using military force in these situations is an option fraught with grave risks. Brian VanDeMark is professor of history, United States Naval Academy This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump orders 700 Marines and 2,000 more National Guard troops to quell Los Angeles unrest
Read more: The US Pentagon ordered hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles and an additional 2,000 National Guard members to quell unrest in the city on June 9, 2025. The deployment was another escalation of President Donald Trump's response to street protests against the US leader's tough anti-immigrant policies. Earlier in the day, California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened to sue Trump for dispatching National Guard troops to America's second-most populous city without state authorisation.
