US House moves on sanctions over HK law

The US House of Representatives agreed unanimously to seek tough sanctions on Chinese officials and Hong Kong police after Beijing imposed a security law that clamps down on unrest in the city.

After a day in which Hong Kong authorities arrested hundreds of protesters, the House quickly passed the act that had already passed the Senate last week.

Due to technical changes, the Senate will need to vote again and a senator said it could happen within days.

“The Chinese regime just thinks that they can act with impunity and repressing the spirit of democracy,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the House passage.

“If we refuse to speak out on human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out for human rights any place in the world,” said Washington’s top elected Democrat, long a vocal proponent of human rights in China.

President Donald Trump has not said if he will sign the bill but one of his allies briefly held up the Senate version, seeking changes.

Trump publicly hesitated last year before signing another rights bill on Hong Kong which also lays out sanctions against Chinese officials for infringing on the city’s autonomy.

Unlike the previous act, the new legislation would make sanctions mandatory, limiting Trump’s ability to waive them. In a crucial pressure point, it would also slap sanctions on banks that conduct transactions with violators.

Under a deal ahead of the 1997 handover from Britain, authoritarian China guaranteed Hong Kong civil liberties as well as judicial and legislative autonomy until 2047 in a formula known as “One Country, Two Systems”.

China says the new law doesn’t damage the territory’s rights but will restore stability after months of pro-democracy unrest.