China said it would “hit back forcefully” at the United States after the US Congress officially
with a bill to support democratic freedoms in Hong Kong by putting pressure on Chinese authorities.
“Passing the bill will only encourage the radical and violent forces in Hong Kong and send Hong Kong further into chaos,” Geng said. “It will harm not only China’s interests, but also the US’ interests.
“China will hit back forcefully at any US action that aims to hurt China’s interests.”
The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 moved through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, setting the stage for votes in both chambers in the coming weeks.
The bill could pave the way for diplomatic action and economic sanctions against the Hong Kong government. If passed, it would, among other actions, require the US to sanction Chinese officials deemed responsible for “undermining basic freedoms in Hong Kong” and require the US president to review Hong Kong’s special economic status.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a statement on Thursday that the bill was an attempt to “wantonly interfere in China’s domestic affairs” and had shown the “malicious intention of some in the US Congress to contain China’s development”.
Beijing demanded that the US Congress stop taking the bill forward, to prevent “further strain on Sino-US relations”, Geng said in the statement.
A separate statement by the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council said the bill was intended to support anti-China forces and rioters in Hong Kong, which would “pour oil on the flame”.
The statement described the Hong Kong people who demanded the passage of the bill as “traitors”. The city has seen over three months of mass anti-government protests triggered by opposition to a now-shelved
that would have allowed the transfer of criminal suspects to the mainland.
The bill passed the House committee in a unanimous vote, said Jeff Sagnip, policy director for Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who sponsored the legislation in the lower chamber.
An identical version of the bill in the Senate, sponsored by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, of Florida, was approved by the upper chamber committee soon afterwards.
“Getting out of the committee is the big step,” said Sagnip, who added that “a floor vote [in the full House of Representatives] will take place sometime in October”, most likely shortly after Columbus Day, a US holiday, on October 14.
The legislation is intended to act as an amendment to the US-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, which kept US business and other ties to the city intact after its 1997 handover from Britain to China.