The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday night to impose sanctions on entities that help violate Hong Kong’s autonomy and the financial institutions that do business with them, in response to the passage of a “security” law. national “that tightened Beijing’s control over Hong Kong: that it has been semi-autonomous from China since 1997.
Chinese law, passed earlier this week, says those who destroy public facilities and services would be considered subversive. Damaging public transportation facilities and arson would constitute acts of terrorism. Anyone involved in secessionist activities, whether organizing or participating, would violate the law regardless of whether violence is used.
It comes after a full year of pro-democracy protests in the former British territory that was handed over to China 23 years ago on the condition that it would maintain a high degree of autonomy from mainland China and a British-style rule of law, a “one country, two systems” framework. China has slowly invaded Hong Kong’s autonomy, prompting United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this year to declare that “it is no longer autonomous.”
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“The United States Congress on a bipartisan basis has long joined in our mission to hold Beijing accountable for its brutal crackdown on those who peacefully demand their rights and freedoms, including in Hong Kong,” said House Speaker of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Democrat for California. The bill passed on Wednesday.
He added: “Today’s action is an urgent response to the Chinese government’s cowardly approval of its so-called ‘national security’ law, which threatens the end of ‘one country, two systems’ promised exactly 23 years ago today. All freedom – people who love must condemn this horrible law, designed specifically to dismantle democratic freedoms in Hong Kong. “
Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement: “As Americans we must do everything we can to support freedom lovers who are fighting Hong Kong people against tyranny of the CCP. The United States is determined to impose consequences. ” “
And after House legislation on Wednesday, the State Department issued a letter Thursday morning to US companies warning of “reputational, economic and legal” problems they could see as they continue to do business with companies in the region of Xinjiang of China. The Chinese government has run internment and forced labor camps there, which house approximately 1 million Uighur Muslims, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Riot police are on duty after rejecting protesters demonstrating against the new security law on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s surrender from Britain on Wednesday July. 1, 2020, in Hong Kong. Hong Kong police made their first arrests under a new national security law imposed by mainland China. The law, which came into effect on Tuesday night, makes activities deemed subversive or secessionist punishable by life imprisonment. (AP Photo / Vincent Yu)
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The Chinese government has also required the forced sterilization of Uighurs in what the State Department letter called “some of the most serious acts involving massive human rights abuses since World War II … The purpose of the internment has been forcing members of these minority groups to renounce their ethnic identity and religion, and to embrace the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. “
Pompeo on Tuesday criticized the imposition of the repressive Hong Kong law.
“The decision of the Chinese Communist Party to impose draconian national security legislation in Hong Kong destroys the territory’s autonomy and one of China’s greatest achievements,” he said. “The United States will not stand idly by as China swallows Hong Kong in its authoritarian jaws. Last week, we imposed visa restrictions on [Chinese Communist Party] officials responsible for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy. We are finalizing exports of defense and dual-use technology to the territory. According to President Trump’s instructions, we will remove the policy exemptions that give Hong Kong different and special treatment, with few exceptions. “
House legislation would take those steps by the State Department one step further. A summary of the Congressional Investigation Service legislation says it provides for sanctions against “foreign individuals and entities that materially contributed to China’s failure” to respect Hong Kong’s autonomy and “foreign financial institutions that knowingly entered into a significant transaction with such individuals and entities identified. “
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Sanctions against financial institutions would be mandatory and sanctions against “entities and individuals” would be left to the discretion of the president, unless mentioned in State Department reports for helping to violate Hong Kong’s autonomy for two consecutive years.
The Senate passed a similar bill earlier this month. Sponsors of that bill, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said they plan to get the Senate to align its legislation with that of the House to send it to the President’s desk “as soon as” Thursday.
“Tens of thousands of Hong Kong people are on the streets protesting and refusing to surrender their basic rights to the Chinese Communist Party,” Toomey and Van Hollen said. “They are doing so even when the CCP’s collaborators are cracking down on freedom of expression and the right of assembly. Our Hong Kong bipartisan Autonomy Law will punish those responsible for these repressions and other CCP aggressions with heavy sanctions.”
Fox News ‘Edmund DeMarche and Caitlin McFall, Fox Business’ Blake Burman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
