A push in the U.S. Congress for legislation to support pro-democracy protests in...
WASHINGTON - A push in the U.S. Congress for legislation to support pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and pressure China to refrain from a violent crackdown faces an array of obstacles, raising questions about the prospect it will ever become law.
The House of Representatives unanimously passed Hong Kong human rights legislation in mid-October, including a bill that would place Hong Kong’s special treatment by the United States under tighter scrutiny, drawing accusations from Beijing that the lawmakers had “sinister intentions.” [nL2N27100M] “Your guess is as good as mine as to why something that enjoys that broad, bipartisan support - and on an issue that’s acute and happening now - has not reached the floor of the U.S. Senate,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a leading China hawk and the bill’s chief co-sponsor, told Reuters.Looming over the Hong Kong crisis is the bitter trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
The legislation reflects an increasingly hard-line sentiment among some of Trump’s fellow Republicans and many Democrats over what they see as Beijing’s tightening grip on Hong Kong. Mark Simon, a Hong Kong-based executive for Next Media, a media group funded by pro-democracy businessman Jimmy Lai, is pessimistic about the Senate bill’s near-term prospects after a recent round of meetings with members of Congress in Washington.
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