- China warned it would “take effective measures,” against the US, after the House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at supporting protesters in Hong Kong.
- The bill which itself would require an annual review to see whether Hong Kong is sufficiently autonomous to dignify its special trading status under US law, according to Bloomberg.
- The bill would still have to be approved by the Senate and then signed by the president to be passed into law.
- In a statement, Geng Shuang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said “Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs and cannot be interfered by any outside forces.”
- View Markets Insider’s homepage for more stories.
China warned the US, saying that it would “take effective measures,” against the country if a bill aimed at supporting protestors in Hong Kong is passed into law — a move that may throw trade war talks into a spin.
“We express our strong indignation and resolute opposition to the US House of Representatives’ insistence on adopting the so-called ‘Hong Kong Bill of Rights on Human Rights and Democracy,'” said Geng Shuang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, in a statement.
Geng also added in his statement that: “The United States also has important interests in Hong Kong. If the relevant bill is finally passed into law, it will not only harm the interests of the Chinese side, but also damage Sino-US relations, and it will seriously damage the interests of the United States.”
On Tuesday the House of Representatives passed a bill which would if passed into law require an annual review of Hong Kong to see if the city was sufficiently autonomous, as reported by Bloomberg. Bloomberg also said the bill would allow sanctions on those “responsible for undermining fundamental freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong.”
The bill must be passed by Senate and then by Trump himself, however, and therefore by no means is ironclad, despite bipartisan support on both sides of the house.
The bill is “one that, if successful in the Senate, would see the US end its special trading status with Hong Kong if the city’s authorities were deemed to have reached human rights and the rule of law,” said Connor Campbell, a financial analyst at Spreadex.com.
US futures dropped with the S&P 500 slipping 0.3% and offshore yuan which is pegged to the dollar 0.3%.
Geng said the US “ignores the facts, reverses black and white, and calls serious crimes such as arson, smuggling shops, and violent assaults as human rights and democracy. It is a naked double standard that fully exposes some people in the United States on human rights and democracy. ”
“We advised the US side to recognize the situation and immediately stop promoting the review of the relevant Hong Kong bill and immediately stop interfering with Hong Kong affairs and interfering in China’s internal affairs” said Geng.
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
