A crowd estimated to be larger than 1 million took to the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday to voice their opposition to legislation that would allow ​China to extradite people to mainland China in the most massive protests since Britain handed back control of the city in 1997.

The throngs streaming through the high rise-lined streets represented a cross-section of the city’s residents — young children, students, families pushing strollers, elderly people wielding canes and professionals — with many chanting “Go Hong Kongers” and “No China extradition, no evil law” and demanding Beijing scrap the legislation up for debate on Wednesday in the Legislative Council.

Organizers put the army of demonstrators at more than a million — which would represent one of every seven residents in the city — but Chinese officials dismissed the crowd as about 240,000 people at the peak of the protests.

The marchers not only spoke against the extradition law, but about the lack of transparency in government and the continuing erosion of their personal rights to an ever more repressive China.

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“现在邋遢鬼班农（Sloppy Steve）已经像一条狗一样，被所有人都抛弃了，真惨！”

这是班农在被白宫扫地出门几个月之后，他的前雇主特朗普扔给他的一句话。

有媒体这样描述这一景象：这是一个可悲的小人物沦落到卑躬屈膝地乞求特朗普的原谅

不甘于寂寞的班农在离开白宫后，把攻击中国作为一个重要目标。尤其是进入2019年，他对中国的攻击明显加大了火力：

“封杀华为比达成贸易协议重要十倍”；

“中国已经成为美国最大的敌人”；

“对我来说，和中国的经济战争就是一切”；

……

在进入白宫前，班农只是一个边缘的无名之辈；进入白宫后，大权在握的他推着特朗普政府“向右走”。

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“Now Sloppy Steve has been abandoned like a dog, and it’s really miserable!”

This is a sentence that Bannon threw to his former employer Trump a few months after he was swept away by the White House.

Some media have described this scene: this is a sad little person who has fallen to the knees and begged Trump for forgiveness.

After leaving the White House, Bannon, who was not willing to be lonely, attacked China as an important goal. Especially in 2019, his attack on China has significantly increased firepower:

“It is ten times more important to block Huawei than to reach a trade agreement”;

“China has become the biggest enemy of the United States”;

“For me, the economic war with China is everything”;

……

Before entering the White House, Bannon was just a nameless person on the edge; after entering the White House, he was pushing the Trump administration to “go to the right.”

So now, is the Bannon, who has been “squatting and kneeling”, the initiator of this anti-China undercurrent in Washington? Does he have the energy to turn it into a big wave?

“The liar artist”

“They often come from marginal families, feel excluded, are not fully recognized, and even despised. They believe that it is now their turn to rule the country, and they have to retaliate for all the contempt they have received during the promotion process. ”

The British “Daily Mail” wrote in a review article analyzing the arguments of Bannon.

In American society, there are not many people who have a good impression of Bannon. For a long time, he is at the edge of the US political spectrum.

“Speaking rudely, not trimming, self-proclaiming” has almost become a sketch of the outside world, and Bannon has spared no effort to “figh for the forgotten white working class”, targeting globalization and China, and preaching this is The reason why American middle and lower whites live hard.

After killing China, the white brothers have a good life.

But he often seems to have not studied much about the targets he has attacked.

In a speech in Prague, Bannon slammed foreign countries to use their cheap labor to carry out “unfair competition,” and the atmosphere suddenly became paralyzed, and the audience looked at each other.

As we all know, most of the Czech GDP comes from exports, and cheap labor is the reason behind it. Obviously, Bannon knows nothing about it.

In Trump’s first year in office, Bannon self-proclaimed “master strategist” reputation “also proved to be false ” .

In August 2017, the Charlottesville riots occurred in Virginia. Bannon’s trick to Trump: racism is the winning choice, and the president should not stay away from white supremacists.

Bannon seriously underestimated the degree of resentment against him after the Charlottesville incident. Trump was annoyed because Trump had not explicitly condemned the white supremacist and attracted public opinion and criticism within the Republican Party. The outside world continued to pressure and asked Trump to start the Bannon. A few days later, Bannon was kicked out of the White House.

Soon after, Bannon’s rhetoric in Wolf’s new book Fire and Fury finally made Trump completely break with him.

Personnel layout

Almost in sync with Bannon’s concentrated firepower attack on China, Sino-US relations are under increasing pressure.

A natural question is: How can the Bannon, who does not enter the stream, set off this “anti-China” demon in Washington?

On the one hand, although Bannon was kicked out, his personnel deployment in the White House is still playing a role.

After entering the White House, the original insignificant Bannon suddenly became a “national teacher”. Trump’s set of policies after he took office has his shadow: writing an inaugural speech for Trump, prompting Trump to nominate conservative judges to serve as justices of the Supreme Court, and the “prohibition” that is highly controversial is also widespread. Think it is his idea.

“Time” Weekly wrote: “Suddenly, his fingerprints have become ubiquitous.”

What is even more shocking to the outside world is that Bannon has become one of the members of the US National Security Council. The “National Security Council” has an unwritten rule for many years: it does not set up a standing seat for officials with distinct political positions. Bannon is not only extremely politically motivated, but also has no diplomatic and national security decision-making experience.

This jump has made his influence more than most other cabinet officials. He took advantage of the power and promoted a large number of right-wing middle-level officials who believed in similar values ​​in the White House.

Nowadays, although Bannon has already been “into the cold palace” by Trump, most of the officials still stay in various positions, adding to their common radical ideas.

In May of this year, Skinner, an African-American female official of the US State Department, publicly declared when she spoke about China. “This is the first time we have faced a strong non-white competitor.” This statement with obvious ethnicity made the outside world feel awkward, and also showed that she basically accepted Bannon’s ultra-conservative right-wing concept.

Circle communication

Bannon, who left the White House, was not idle. He actively used his media social circle to keep close contact with many of the host of Fox TV, the American right-wing conservative spokesperson. He also participated in various extreme right-wing organizations and made frequent appearances.

Just a week ago, CGTN host Liu Xin and Fox’s commercial channel’s Tracy Reagan’s “conspiracy” attracted much attention.

What many people don’t know is that there is also the shadow of Bannon behind this debate.

On May 22, Liu Xin strongly dismissed Tsui’s remarks about “economic warfare” against China in a short commentary. The next day, Tracy spent 11 minutes on her show to respond to it, and then she invited Bannon to appear on the show.

Bannon said that China’s “personal attack is in a state of hysteria”. “They (China) understand that President Trump has fully seen that they have launched a 20-year economic war against industrial democracies, especially against the United States.” . Bannong is eager to describe how “easy and uneasy” China is.

After this episode, Tsui Xi, who couldn’t help himself, offered to have a debate with Liu Xin.

The debate was not as intense as expected. It was reported that this was because Fox had made a poll before the debate. Most of the audience thought that Tracy was “emotional and lacking arguments”. Therefore, on the day of the debate, Tracy facing the camera “always Keep a smile.”

In addition to keeping a close eye on Fox’s Chinese topic, in private, Bannon has a very close personal relationship with a number of moderators, regularly meeting with them, spare no effort to sell them the “China threat theory”, using the media megaphone to make their own voice. Spread out.

In addition, Bannon is also cooperating with other anti-China circle of Huaying Pella. A recent example is that in March of this year, he and other anti-Chinese people re-launched the “Current Dangerous Committee” in Washington, with the aim of “responding to China’s threat to US national interests” and conducting relevant policy research and publicity.

This is a US foreign policy lobby group that has been launched three times in history: 1950 and 1976 during the Cold War and 2004 during the US war on terror.

The time of Bannon

So, Washington’s China policy is being led by Bannon?

If you think so, I am afraid that the Bannon is too overestimated.

Perhaps the only lucky thing for Bannon is the timing he happened to encounter.

One is Trump’s unexpected victory. Many political analysts believe that Bannon can get Trump’s weight, not because of his superior ability or persuasive point of view, but because he and Trump have many things in common: they are all eloquent, all with Elite groups are out of place, and their positions on trade, immigration, and public security are similar.

If there is no Trump, Bannon is still nothing.

When the Washington Post pessimistically believed that no one could stop Bannon from doing anything in the White House, no one thought that Bannon’s political career was planted in his self-promotion and rhetoric.

More importantly, Bannon encountered a stage in which both parties hoped to adjust their strategy toward China. He took advantage of this opportunity to create an infectious anti-China atmosphere and blame many problems in American society on China. Let China become a scapegoat for the crux of American social development.

At this stage, Bannon happens to be close to Washington at the beginning of his understanding of China, but it is not a causal relationship in essence.

But no matter how long this anti-Chinese soap bubble blown by Bannon can last, no one can tell.

His influence on Trump can be said to be minimal—although it has been reused, but now the two have personally been very bad, Trump even pointed out that Bannon is “missing crazy”. As everyone knows, Trump believes in his instincts on many issues.

After the victory of the Trump election in 2016, Bannon boasted that he was Thomas Cromwell of the Tudor dynasty, proudly suggesting that he had a strong influence on Trump. However, this metaphor is ironic. Cromwell, who once advised the king, did not escape the fate of being beheaded by the king.

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