US’ revised Hong Kong democracy bill targets Chinese state media over ‘harassment’ of protesters
- Legislation would compel the US State Department to weigh ‘deliberate targeting of democracy activists’ in granting visas to Chinese state media’s journalists
- Hong Kong newspapers run by the Communist Party are cited specifically in the revised bill, expected to go to a US Senate vote by mid-October
The latest version of US legislation aimed at supporting democratic freedoms in Hong Kong targets media outlets affiliated with China’s government and seeks to bar the exportation of crowd control and surveillance equipment to the city, expanding the scope of a proposed law that has ratcheted up tension between Washington and Beijing.
A revised Senate version of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, which was approved in that chamber’s foreign relations committee on Wednesday, would compel the US State Department to take “deliberate targeting and harassment” of democracy activists and US diplomatic personnel by media organisations controlled by China into account when reviewing visa applications from those outlets’ journalists.
Hong Kong newspapers Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Po, both run by the Communist Party of China, are cited specifically in the revised bill, which is expected to go to a vote on the Senate floor by mid-October.
Alleged harassment of a US diplomat by Chinese media sparked a war of words between Washington and Beijing last month, when Ta Kung Pao published personal details of Julie Eadeh, chief of the US consulate’s political unit, including her children’s names, and a photograph of Eadeh meeting pro-democracy activists including Joshua Wong Chi-fung.
Also attending that meeting were Nathan Law Kwun-chung and other members of local political party Demosisto.