Hong Kong trade offices in US targeted by new Senate bill
- Legislation by Senators Rubio and Merkley would require a yearly review on whether the offices should keep their diplomatic privileges
- Bill is Washington’s latest response to Beijing’s crackdown on opposition activists in the city since 2019 protests
Two US senators introduced a bill on Thursday that could shutter Hong Kong’s representative offices in America if the White House determines that Beijing has undermined the city’s autonomy.
The bill would amend the State Department’s annual review of Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status to require the US president to explain to Congress why the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs) in the country should retain or lose their diplomatic privileges.
The annual review is required by the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, which went into effect in advance of Britain’s handover of Hong Kong to Beijing in 1997. It was intended to keep US trade and other privileges the city enjoyed in place following the transfer of control.
The bill is meant to block efforts to “knowingly assist in the promotion of Hong Kong as a free and autonomous city or [the Hong Kong government] as committed to protecting the human rights of people of Hong Kong or fully maintaining the rule of law required for human rights and economic prosperity” if the State Department determines that the city has lost its autonomy.
Sponsored by Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act is the latest Washington response to Beijing’s crackdown on opposition activists in the city since widespread protests there in 2019.
The bill is the same as one Rubio introduced in December – close to the end of the previous congressional session – but that did not get any cosponsors and was not voted on.
Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, plans to introduce an identical version of the bill in the House on Friday, according to a staffer in his office.