Prominent US senators back Hong Kong human rights and democracy act in wake of protest at city US consulate

More high-ranking American senators have signed onto legislation aimed at supporting democracy in Hong Kong, just days after thousands of protesters in the city marched in front of the US consulate there to call for support from the US government for their cause.

Susan Collins, a Republican representing Maine, and Kristen Gillibrand, a New York state Democrat, were among the four senators who co-sponsored the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 on Monday, which brings the current sponsors to nearly twice the number that signed on when Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of China, introduced the bill in June.

“The United States must make clear to China that its interference in Hong Kong’s affairs will have consequences,” Rubio said. “This month we must pass the bicameral and bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.”

“The United States and other free nations must hold China to its promise to the world in a legally-binding treaty with Britain that it will fully respect Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms,” Rubio added, referring to the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong, under which the two governments agreed China would reassume control of Hong Kong.

The additional congressional support for the bill, which would require the US government to assess Hong Kong’s level of political autonomy annually to determine whether it should continue to have a special trade status, comes as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee works to bring the legislation to a vote.