China slams US's ‘sinister intentions’ in passing Hong Kong bills
China says the United States “harbors sinister intentions” in signing into law two bills that support the anti-government protests in Hong Kong, the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, and has summoned the US envoy over the issue.
China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng had filed a “strong protest” with US Ambassador Terry Branstad on Thursday and demanded that the US “correct its mistakes and change course” and “avoid further damage” to bilateral relations.
The development came just a day after US President Donald Trump signed into law a controversial piece of legislation, the so-called “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” that had attracted bipartisan support from Congress last week.
The new law requires the US State Department to certify, at least every year, that Hong Kong has sufficient autonomy to justify favorable US trading terms that have helped it maintain its status as an international financial hub.
The law also threatens officials responsible for alleged violations of human rights in Hong Kong with sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes.
Trump also signed another piece of legislation that bans the export to the Hong Kong riot police of crowd-control munitions, including teargas canisters, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and stun guns.
“The nature of this is extremely abominable, and harbors absolutely sinister intentions,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in its statement, warning that Beijing was ready to take unspecified “firm countermeasures.”
The government of Hong Kong, for its part, censured the bills and said that they “are obviously interfering in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.” It also warned that the US move would “send the wrong message to the protesters.”
Hong Kong has been engulfed by turbulent street protests since June. The public display of anger was initially set up over a controversial extradition bill. The proposal was eventually shelved, but the anti-government rallies have continued and taken on an increasingly violent form, with masked individuals vandalizing public and private property and attacking security forces and government buildings.
Beijing sees the United States and Britain, the former colonial power in Hong Kong, as instigators of the unrest in Hong Kong.
The city has been governed under a “one-country, two-system” model since the city was returned to China in 1997.
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