Washington DC, August 10: US state department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus on Friday said the official media reports of China about a visiting American diplomat who met with Hong Kong’s anti-government movement’s student group’s leaders “have gove from irresponsible to dangerous” and must be stopped.
In a tweet, Ortagus said, “Chinese authorities know full well, our accredited consular personnel are just doing their jobs, just like diplomats from every other country.”
Official Chinese media reports on our diplomat in Hong Kong have gone from irresponsible to dangerous. This must stop. Chinese authorities know full well, our accredited consular personnel are just doing their jobs, just like diplomats from every other country.
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) August 9, 2019
Without elaborating the nature of the Chinese media reports, she added: “This must stop.”
According to Reuters news reports, Ortagus has on Thursday termed China as a “thuggish regime” for revealing personal details and photographs of the US diplomat, identified as US’ Julie Eadeh by a Hong Kong state-run newspaper.
“I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children — I don’t think that is a formal protest … That is not how a responsible nation would behave,” she told a media briefing.
On Thursday, the Chinese foreign ministry in Hong Kong asked the United States to explain reports that American diplomats were in connection with the protesting student group’s leaders that have convulsed the city for straight nine months.
The Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao published has published a picture that showed Eadehn holding talks with student leaders in luxury hotel’s lobby with a headline: “Foreign Forces Intervene”.
However, the US state department did not identify the diplomat nor even described on what kinds of details or student’s details were disclosed.
In subsequent tweets on Friday, the spokesperson said “foreign diplomats in the United States, including Chinese ones, enjoy open access to all elements of American politics, civil society, academia, and business.”
Foreign diplomats in the United States, including Chinese ones, enjoy open access to all elements of American politics, civil society, academia, and business.
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) August 9, 2019
“China has a long record of broken commitments; it’s their duty under the Vienna Conventions, to which China is a party, to treat our diplomats and consular officers with due respect and take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on their person, freedom or dignity,” she said.
China accused foreign powers, especially the US, of instigating the mass demonstrations in the territory.