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Hong Kong protests

US response on Hong Kong was too little, too late: ex-official

Lack of global unity gave China an opening for security law, Daniel Russel argues

Chinese President Xi Jinping at an event in Shanghai. The lack of a united international response gave Beijing the confidence to move ahead on the Hong Kong national security bill, former U.S. State Department official Daniel Russel said.   © Reuters

WASHINGTON -- "One ounce of prevention is worth one pound of cure." That was the analogy former senior U.S. official Daniel Russel gave when talking to Nikkei about the American response to China's new national security law for Hong Kong.

Now that Beijing has pulled the trigger, it is much harder to roll back the measures, which are widely seen as infringing on the freedoms promised to Hong Kong under the "one country, two systems" formula that was to stay in effect until 2047.

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