Beijing fires back over US bill, new sanctions

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill offering protected status to Hongkongers fleeing political persecution, earning condemnation from China.

And in a related issue, Beijing also condemned Washington's new sanctions on 14 mainland officials over the crackdown on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong, saying China will "take resolute and forceful countermeasures and resolutely defend its sovereignty, security and development interests."

The US House voted to pass the Hong Kong People's Freedom and Choice Act of 2020, which promises temporary protected status for Hongkongers who are already in the United States and fear persecution if they return to the SAR.

Successful applicants could remain in the country legally and obtain work permits for five years. Although the bill is yet to be approved by the Senate, it has reportedly gained support across parties.

Democrat congressman Tom Malinowski, who sponsored the bill, said the opening of US gates for Hongkongers was more effective than slapping sanctions on Chinese officials.

Malinowski tweeted: "The message to the Chinese government is that if you crush Hong Kong, you could lose some of its best and brightest people to us."

On the House floor he said: "The best way to win against a dictatorship is to pit the strength of our system against the weakness of theirs, to hold up the glaring contrast between our free, open and self-confident democracy against the weakness of the oppressive, closed and fearful system that the Communist Party has imposed on the Chinese people, including those in Hong Kong."

If the bill is approved by the Senate, Hong Kong would be the only wealthy place to enjoy temporary protected status, which has been issued by Congress or the White House to protect hundreds of thousands of people from war-ravaged nations such as Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

The State and Treasury departments, meanwhile, announced sanctions against 14 vice chairmen of the National People's Congress to freeze their assets in the United States and bar them and their family from traveling to the country.

They are Wang Chen, Cao Jianming, Zhang Chunxian, Shen Yueyue, Ji Bingxuan, Arken Imirbaki, Wan Exiang, Chen Du, Wang Dongming, Padma Choling, Ding Zhongli, Hao Mingjin, Cai Dafeng and Wu Weihua.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: "The Chinese government and people have expressed strong indignation and strongly condemned the United States' arrogant, unreasonable and insane behavior."

The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office quoted the Bible and said: "Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad," in response to the sanctions.

The Hong Kong government said it also "strongly condemned the sanctions."

It said the National People's Congress is the highest organ of Chinese state power which has the duty to enact national law and apply it to Hong Kong in response to security risks amid "escalating violence and social chaos from June last year to early this year."

The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the SAR criticized Washington for "smearing the NPC's act of justice."

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Zheng Zeguang summoned the charge d'affaires of the US embassy and consulates in China, Robert Forden, to express Beijing's strong opposition against the sanctions.

jane.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com