President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress should declare, “We are Hong Kongers,” said Frank Gaffney, executive chairman of the Center for Security Policy and host of Secure Freedom Radio, in a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

Gaffney addressed recent clashes in Hong Kong between police and protesters demanding independence from China.

“We need to be heard from before this goes any further,” said Gaffney, advising American to impose “real costs” on China if Hong Kong’s “autonomy is snuffed” and if the former British territory’s “freedom is denied any further by the Chinese Communist Party.”

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During Tuesday’s edition of the Secure Freedom Minute, Gaffney said:

One of the defining moments of the Cold War took place in June 1963 when President John F. Kennedy declared in German, “I am a Berliner.” This statement communicated to the Kremlin that there would be real costs if it tried to end that city’s highly symbolic opposition to communist oppression. JFK succeeded in deterring a Soviet assault on West Berlin. Today, another city that is similarly an outpost of freedom faces an imminent threat from another ruthless communist regime. The people of Hong Kong urgently need a similar expression of solidarity to deter a seemingly imminent Chinese crackdown. America’s bipartisan leadership should declare today that “We are Hong Kongers.” If combined with a commitment to end the Chinese Communists’ ability to exploit Hong Kong’s Most Favored Nation trade status in the event its autonomy is ended, deterrence may just work again.

Gaffney assessed the geopolitical conflict between the U.S. and China.

“This is not a trade war,” Gaffney determined. “We are in the midst of an economic war, at minimum — ‘unrestricted warfare’ is what the Chinese themselves have called it — that has been going on for decades … not one we seek, not one we want, but one that has nonetheless been waged against us by communist China.”

Gaffney added, “I think it is shortsighted and ultimately doomed to treat what is going on now as though we can’t say certain things or we can’t stand for certain things vis-a-vis Hong Kong lest it interfere with the achievement of a trade deal that, at best — at the very best — will have some good new commitments from China. They’ll stop stealing our intellectual property. They’ll stop manipulating their currency. They’ll stop predatory trade practices. That’s the very best case. There will be new promises, but we know that they never honor their promises.”

Allowing China to expand its control over Hong Kong will incentivize the one-party state to continue the expansion of its authority.

“Hong Kong is just one of the places where they are seeking to change the world order, if you will, the Pax Americana, the free world as we’ve known it.”

Gaffney concluded, “It has seemed to be the case that as long as the Chinese feel entitled to do certain things, we’re going to stand by. What’s next? Taiwan? They feel entitled to take it.”

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