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The House of Representatives has yet to pass a bill allowing the United States to impose sanctions on Chinese officials and the Hong Kong police and banks that cooperate with those officials.
The vote on the bill will take place at a time when China is pressing for a national security law that allows punishment for destructive activities and other threats in Hong Kong, where there were massive protests last year to preserve democratic freedoms of the population of the financial center.
“They are moving forward to deprive the people of Hong Kong of their freedoms.” So time is of the essence, ”said Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.
“If the Senate adopts the resolution only in response to Beijing’s actions, it is unlikely to be taken seriously,” he said in the Senate.
“And that is why it is important to really do what would show that the Chinese government will pay the price if it continues to move in that direction to destroy these human freedoms in Hong Kong,” he added. Van hollenas
The House of Representatives, led by Democrats, is likely to pass the bill.
President Donald Trump’s administration has already stated that it no longer views Hong Kong as an autonomous region under US law.
So far, however, it has taken relatively symbolic steps and has not raised the issue of trade relations.
China promised to maintain a separate system from Hong Kong before taking territory from Great Britain in 1997.
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