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China threatens US for signing law backing HK protesters


Published : 28 Nov 2019 09:03 PM | Updated : 02 Sep 2020 11:39 PM

China on Thursday threatened to retaliate after United States president Donald Trump signed legislation supporting Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, just as the world’s top two economies edge towards a trade truce, report agencies.

Trump had seemed reluctant to sign the legislation, but came under heavy pressure from Congress, where the issue has attracted rare bipartisan support. In a statement, Trump spoke of ‘respect’ for Chinese president Xi Jinping and said he hoped the ‘leaders and representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to amicably settle their differences’. But Beijing reacted furiously, warning it was ready to take unspecified ‘firm countermeasures’.

‘The nature of this is extremely abominable, and harbours absolutely sinister intentions,’ the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement. In Hong Kong, the government expressed ‘extreme regret’ after Trump signed legislation requiring an annual review of freedoms in Hong Kong and banning the sale of crowd control equipment like tear gas.

‘The two acts are obviously interfering in Hong Kong’s internal affairs,’ the city government said in a statement, warning the move would ‘send the wrong message to the protesters’. And Beijing’s liaison office in the city condemned Washington’s ‘disgusting conduct’, saying it would bring ‘trouble and chaos’ to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong people have protested in huge numbers over the last six months, fuelled by years of growing fears that authoritarian China is stamping out the city’s liberties. The territory’s Beijing-backed leaders have offered few concessions and police have cracked down hard on protesters in increasingly violent confrontations.

On Thursday, police entered the campus of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where they lay siege to protesters inside for days. Most protesters have now left, some of them arrested as they tried to flee, and police were collecting evidence including Molotov cocktails at the ransacked site.

Trump also signed legislation banning sales of tear gas, rubber bullets and other equipment used by Hong Kong security forces in putting down the protests. Republican senators Marco Rubio and Jim Risch, together with Democratic senators Ben Cardin Bob Menendez, issued a joint statement welcoming Trump’s decision.

‘The US now has new and meaningful tools to deter further influence and interference from Beijing into Hong Kong’s internal affairs,’ Rubio said. Hong Kong activists said the move would help build international support for their movement. On Tuesday, Trump said he was ‘with’ the protesters, but quickly backpedalled, emphasising his close ties to Xi and efforts to secure a long-delayed resolution to the trade war.

‘It’s going very well but at the same time we want to see it go well in Hong Kong,’ he said. ‘I think it will. I think that president Xi can make that happen. I know him and I know he’d like to make it happen.’