Evidence Of CIA Meeting HK Protest Leaders? China Summons US Diplomats Over Viral Photo

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After a viral photo surfaced this week revealing continuing contact between well-known Hong Kong pro-independence protest leaders and a US diplomatic officer, China has summoned US consulate officials stationed in the city, Bloomberg reports.

According to a statement from Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong, Chinese officials asked the Americans to clarify media reports that a US diplomat had contacted the local protest leaders.

Bloomberg reports the clear firm message sent that "China firmly opposes any contacts with them and urges U.S. to stop sending wrong signals to violent law breakers in Hong Kong."

As well organized anti-Beijing protests have raged and continued to escalate this summer over the deeply controversial extradition bill, Beijing authorities have repeatedly blamed a US "hidden hand" for fueling the crisis.

Chen Weihua ✔ @chenweihua

There were reports suggesting Julie Eadeh is a trained subversion expert at the US consulate in Hong Kong. Her meeting with HK protesters would be evidence of US inciting and instigating the riots in Hong Kong. Is she under the direct order of former CIA chief Mike Pompeo?

According to the UK's The Standard, Joshua Wong brushed off the significance of the meeting while admitting it did happen:

Wong dismissed the allegation following an inquiry by The Standard, saying: "I even went to Washington several times, so what's so special about meeting a US Consul?"

Wong explained he did meet with the US official to discuss the extradition bill, but also in order to urge the United States to cease exports of tear gas and rubber bullets to the Hong Kong SAR government.

It wasn't his first meeting with US officials, Wong stated further: "We also met the US Consul that visited the Legislative Council and have a meeting with pro-establishment and pan-democrat legislators," according to his statement.

The contact between the anti-China force and a US diplomat is "solid evidence" the US is behind the riots in Hong Kong, Li Haidong, a professor with the China Foreign Affairs University's Institute of International Relations in Beijing, told the Global Times. — China's Global Times

Likely, Wong's rebuttal will not appease Chinese media and authorities who point to the incident as proof of US subversive action against Beijing inside the semi-autonomous city.

Eadeh has been engaged in diplomatic missions across the globe, especially in political "hot spots" from Baghdad to Beirut to Jerusalem to Taipei and Shanghai during her lengthy career with the US State Department, according to a short biographical essay she recently penned for Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Chinese state media pundits, however, have pointed to her career stationed in war zones such as Beirut during the 2006 war and in Baghdad and Mosul as suggesting she may be more than a mere "consular officer". Covert CIA officers often pose as State Department consular staff in order to conceal their identity, while also giving them diplomatic immunity in host countries.

One columnist for the Communist Party state newspaper, China Daily, went so far as to say the US diplomatic meeting with protesters points to CIA involvement in the unrest on Hong Kong's streets.

The newspaper's Europe bureau chief, Chen Weihua, wrote on Twitter:

There were reports suggesting Julie Eadeh is a trained subversion expert at the US consulate in Hong Kong. Her meeting with HK protesters would be evidence of US inciting and instigating the riots in Hong Kong. Is she under the direct order of former CIA chief Mike Pompeo?

Whether this is the case or not, we can imaging how US officials would react if Chinese or Russian diplomats were photographed meeting with American anti-government protesters at a moment of serious unrest in US cities.