Hong Kong Activists Joshua Wong, Denise Ho Testify Before Congress

U.S. lawmakers say they are moving forward with attempts to pressure Hong Kong’s government over its treatment of protesters by threatening the territory’s special trading status.

“It is my belief that it is long overdue for the United States and the free world to respond,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said Tuesday at the opening of a hearing of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Rubio’s Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, which would allow sanctions on Chinese officials and require annual assessments of whether the city is sufficiently autonomous from Beijing to continue its special trading status, may be taken up by the Foreign Relations Committee as soon as next week. A companion bill has bipartisan support in the House.

Revoking Hong Kong’s special trading status could devastate the city’s economy, making it a crucial point of leverage. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam warned on Tuesday that any sanctions would only complicate the problems in the city, which has been wracked by protests since June.

“It is time we put the Chinese government on annual notice that further erosion of autonomy or a crackdown in Hong Kong will cause the city, and by extension, mainland China, to lose its special economic and trade arrangement with the United States,” said Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, who chairman of the commission.

McGovern is sponsoring separate legislation to ban U.S. companies from exporting crowd control equipment and munitions such as tear gas and rubber bullets to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong activists in the hearing made a plea for the U.S. to act and found a receptive audience.

“I hope that historians will celebrate the United States Congress for having stood on the side of Hong Kongers, the side of human rights and democracy,” said Joshua Wong, a prominent student leader of the city’s 2014 Occupy movement.

Joshua Wong arrives to speak on Capitol Hill on Sept. 17.Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Denise Ho, a pro-democracy activist, singer and actress who also testified, said Hong Kong is at the front line of “a global fight for the universal values that we all cherish.”

The Hong Kong protests started in opposition to controversial legislation allowing extraditions to mainland China and widened into a broader movement against Beijing’s increasing grip on the city. They show no signs of stopping anytime soon, even after Lam scrapped the bill on Sept. 4.

“I uphold this principle of accountability, but at the moment it is all for us to see that Hong Kong is undergoing a very difficult situation,” Lam said Tuesday at a regular media briefing before a meeting of the city’s Executive Council. “And sanctions or punishment are not going to help lift Hong Kong out of this very difficult situation.”

Both the House and Senate bills have bipartisan support. The White House hasn’t formally weighed in on the legislation. President Donald Trump has called on the Chinese government to handle the protesters “in a very humane way” but hasn’t delivered any extended remarks on the situation.

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