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Joshua Wong rebuffed after anti-Communist diatribe

US-BACKED Hong Kong opposition activist Joshua Wong has been rebuffed by Germany after writing an anti-communist open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel urging her to reconsider relations with China.

The founder of the Demosisto political party, which is bankrolled by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organisation that seeks to promote regime change around the world, appealed to Ms Merkel ahead of her three-day trip to Beijing.

He wrote: “Chancellor Merkel, you grew up in the GDR [German Democratic Republic]. You have first-hand experience of the terrors of a dictatorial government,” a reference to the former GDR’s communist government.

Mr Wong’s diatribe continued:  “Germans courageously stood at the forefront of the fight against authoritarianism during the ’80s.

“We hope that you show the courage and determination against authoritarian injustice regimes that inspired Germany and Europe before the end of the cold war and which Europe is showing today.”

Mr Wong shot to prominence in 2014 during the so-called Umbrella Movement, 79 days of protests characterised by anti-China sentiment.

This movement was also funded by the NED, with two of its four branches — the Solidarity Centre and the National Democratic Institute — active in Hong Kong, the latter since independence from Britain in 1997.

Mr Wong also featured in an award-winning Netflix “documentary” — in reality, a thinly disguised propaganda piece — entitled Joshua: Teenager vs Superpower.

His letter claimed: “Germany should be on its guard to do business with China, since China does not comply with international law and has repeatedly broken its promises.”

But Ms Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said the chancellor’s office did not comment on open letters.

He stressed the importance of dialogue, saying: “People in Hong Kong have a long tradition of the rule of law, and the 1997 basic law enshrines that law.

“We believe that this should be the basis for dialogue and rapprochement.”

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