[But on the streets of Hong Kong, Washington’s support was welcomed — even if it was not seen as a game changer. Protesters are regrouping after a tough week in which more than 1,000 were apprehended and hundreds injured in a failed attempt to turn the city’s universities into fortified bases.]
By Simon Denyer and Tiffany Liang
 |
|
Anti-government
protesters in Hong Kong on Oct. 27. Concerns over the city’s future,
highlighted
by months of unrest against perceived Chinese interference,
are
increasing. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)
|
HONG
KONG — The crisis over Hong
Kong’s future took center stage in worsening U.S.-China relations Thursday, as
protesters called on President Trump to sign into law a bill intended to
protect human rights in the territory over Beijing’s increasingly strident
objections.
The prospect of a diplomatic showdown between
the United States and China over Hong Kong pushed Asian stock markets lower,
after Congress passed a bill that paves the way for sanctions against officials
involved in the crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the
U.S. actions severely damage bilateral relations and do not help world peace
and stability, and state news media urged the United States to “rein in the
horse at the edge of the precipice” and stop interfering in China’s internal
affairs.
“If the U.S. side obstinately clings to its
course, the Chinese side will inevitably adopt forceful measures to take
resolute revenge, and all consequences will be borne by the United States,” the
People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, said in a front-page
editorial.
But on the streets of Hong Kong, Washington’s
support was welcomed — even if it was not seen as a game changer. Protesters
are regrouping after a tough week in which more than 1,000 were apprehended and
hundreds injured in a failed attempt to turn the city’s universities into
fortified bases.
“Sign the bill, protect Hong Kong!” a group
of more than 100 protesters chanted at an upscale shopping mall. “Five demands,
not one less!” they shouted, referring to their list of grievances against
authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing.
In Washington, the Hong Kong bill brought
rare bipartisan cooperation even as the impeachment inquiry deeply divided
lawmakers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
celebrated the bill’s passage as “a day of mutual respect for democratic
freedoms, the courage of the young people there to speak out, and also [a] day
of great bipartisanship in the House of Representative and the United States
Senate.”
“It hardly gets any better than that,” she
added.
After the ceremony, Rep. Michael McCaul
(Tex.), the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told
reporters that he thought Trump would sign the bill. Not to do so “would fly in
the face of the truth that this is happening in Hong Kong and we need to
support the people of Hong Kong,” he said.
The White House declined to comment on the
bill, but it has near-unanimous backing as Congress appears determined to send
a message to the Chinese government.
“I think what you’ve seen here is a
willingness to stand up on the side of the protesters,” Sen. John Cornyn
(R-Tex.) said shortly after the legislation was passed in the Senate. “The
communist government of China needs to know that if they take further
aggressive action against the protesters, and perhaps escalating threats and
the loss of life, from the injury to the protester . . .
it will escalate the battle here in the Congress.”
Hong Kong’s stock market slid 1.6 percent,
with shares across Asia also falling, as investors worried that the
intensifying dispute could delay or derail an interim U.S.-China trade deal.
Months of protests in Hong Kong and an
intensifying police crackdown have heightened concerns about Beijing’s
encroachment on the Asian financial hub’s relative freedoms and autonomy.
In a dramatic escalation this past week,
hundreds of protesters barricaded themselves on a college campus and battled
riot police with makeshift weapons. A few dozen were still holding out inside
the Polytechnic University on Thursday. Others disrupted public transportation,
although in the past two days, relative calm has returned to the city.
[Former British consulate worker tells of torture by China over Hong Kong]
The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,
which Trump has 10 days to sign, would require the secretary of state to
certify annually whether Hong Kong is sufficiently autonomous from China to
justify its special trading status.
Failure to issue that certification would
effectively deal a massive blow to Hong Kong’s role as a global financial and
trading hub. The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong has warned of
possible “unintended, counterproductive” consequences that could undermine the
territory’s unique position.
China’s Commerce Ministry said it will strive
to reach an initial trade agreement with the United States, in an attempt to
allay fears that talks might be unraveling.
In Hong Kong, some protesters and
sympathizers reacted positively to the prospect of U.S. diplomatic pressure to
support their cause.
“This bill is not a painkiller,” wrote
Raymond, a 29-year-old protester who declined to give his full name for fear of
retribution, in an online forum.
He argued that it was “totally stupid” to
think the United States would be able to safeguard Hong Kong, although the U.S.
measures were still a setback for the Chinese and Hong Kong governments.
“But honestly that is good news for Hong Kong
people because [there has been] too much bad news over these two weeks,”
Raymond wrote. “We are all depressed and upset.”
Antony Dapiran, a lawyer and author of books
on Hong Kong’s protest movement, said the bill was seen as providing
“significant moral support” but was, nevertheless, largely symbolic. There is
also a risk that Hong Kong becomes a bargaining chip in Trump’s broader
confrontation with China, he said.
“Clearly, Hong Kong is something of a pawn in
the middle of a much bigger game here,” he said.
A public-opinion poll released last week
found that more than half of Hong Kongers surveyed strongly supported the U.S.
bill and fewer than a quarter strongly opposed it.
At the Polytechnic University, protesters
have stockpiled molotov cocktails, rocks and other weapons, but acting student
union president Ken Woo Kwok-wang said most of the remaining protesters simply
want to leave.
“It is meaningless to stay with just a few
people,” he said, speaking from inside the campus. “However, the accusation of
rioting really threatens us, which is the main reason why we don’t want to go
outside.” A charge of rioting can lead to a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Woo said the protesters needed supplies and
medical help, while some of those sleeping outside had been evacuated after
suffering from hypothermia.
Images from the campus showed a wasteland of
smashed glass, twisted metal from improvised barricades, bricks, debris and
abandoned gasoline bombs.
Protesters said they were undaunted by the
mass arrests and were concentrating on mobilizing a big turnout for district
council elections to be held Sunday.
Overnight, Hong Kong police tried to persuade
the remaining protesters at the college campus to surrender.
“It’s common sense that you have to face the
penalty if you break the law, just like you have to pay the bill after having a
meal in a restaurant,” a police officer said over a loudspeaker.
“No worries, if you are stubborn, we can stay
here and wait for you till Christmas Day, New Year, Easter. However, when more
and more protesters surrender and leave, less and less of you were inside.
Please do not resist if we break into the campus. All right?”
Then the police played a song called
“Surrounded” by the Taiwanese singer Jay Chou.
Shibani Mahtani in New York, Anna Kam in Hong
Kong and Kayla Epstein in Washington contributed to this report.
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