Beijing vows to retaliate after US’ Hong Kong human rights bill is approved by congressional committees

China said it would “hit back forcefully” at the United States after American legislation which threatens to alter Hong Kong’s special economic status – introduced in support of the city’s pro-democracy protesters – moved closer to becoming law.

Two Congressional committees in the US House and Senate approved the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 on Wednesday, setting the stage for votes in both chambers in coming weeks and ramping up pressure on Beijing to dial down tensions after three months of mass protests.

Beijing responded furiously to the bipartisan support for the bill – which could pave the way for diplomatic action and economic sanctions against the Hong Kong government – from both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the bill “confuses black and white in disregard of facts … grossly interferes in China's internal affairs, which fully reveals the ill intentions of some people in the United States to mess up Hong Kong and contain China's development.”

If passed, the bill would, among other actions, require the US to sanction Chinese officials deemed responsible for “undermining basic freedoms in Hong Kong” and require the US president to annually review Hong Kong’s special economic status.

“Passing the bill will only encourage the radical and violent forces in Hong Kong and send Hong Kong further into chaos,” Geng said in a statement posted on the foreign ministry website on Thursday. “It will harm not only China’s interests, but also the US’ interests.”

Beijing demanded the US Congress stop taking the bill forward, to prevent “further strain on Sino-US relations”, Geng said in the statement.

“China will hit back forcefully at any US action that aims to hurt China’s interests,” he said without further elaboration.

A separate statement by the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council, Beijing’s top office overseeing the city, said the bill was intended to support anti-China forces and rioters in Hong Kong, which would “pour oil on the flame”.

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The statement denounced the Hong Kong people who demanded the passage of the bill as “traitors”. The city has seen more than three months of mass anti-government protests triggered by opposition to a now-shelved extradition bill that would have allowed the transfer of criminal suspects to the mainland.

Gu Su, a political analyst at Nanjing University, said the bill came at a sensitive time for both Hong Kong and Beijing, with the increasingly violent demonstrations showing little sign of abating while the Communist Party was pulling out all the stops to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic on Tuesday.

“Beijing’s responses are unusually strong but fairly expected because the mainland authorities cannot afford to appear conciliatory on the months-long unrest in Hong Kong, deemed as an issue of sovereignty,” he said.

“But those official statements smacking of ideological propaganda give us few hints as to what Beijing intends to do to retaliate, or whether they are just political rhetoric aimed at a domestic audience.”

In one of several sternly-worded commentaries, the official Xinhua news agency decried the bill as a cover for American hegemony and bullying tactics against China, lashing out at US politicians for using Hong Kong to spread anti-Chinese sentiments and accusing the US of fomenting a “colour revolution” in the city.

Chinese observers said Beijing was apparently upset at US President Donald Trump, who appeared to have changed his stance on the Hong Kong unrest, after previously saying it was an internal affair for China.

But in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump urged China to protect Hong Kong’s freedom, legal system and democratic way of life – comments which Geng described as “irresponsible”.

“Trump’s change of heart and the approval of the bill the next day show Washington is purposely planning to intervene further in Hong Kong after having tried to take on China on various fronts, from Tibet, Xinjiang to Taiwan and South China Sea,” said Huang Jing, a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University's Institute of International and Regional Studies.

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While it was difficult to contemplate what Beijing planned to do next, both Huang and Gu believed it would be in Beijing’s interests not to link the trade talks with the fight against American intervention on Hong Kong.

“China’s economy is heavily dependent on the world economy and Beijing actually does not have a lot of leverage against Washington in their bitter trade war,” Huang said.

But Shen Dingli a professor of US studies at Fudan University, said America’s latest moves on Hong Kong may have forced Beijing’s hand, making it harder for China to avoid taking a hardline stance and to consider possible retaliatory steps.

“As the world’s second largest economy, Beijing certainly has the ability and necessary means to inflict pain on the US in an uncomfortable position,” he said, citing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent calls for a “great struggle” against a variety of threats, including US-led encirclement.

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The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 passed the House committee in a unanimous vote, according to Jeff Sagnip, policy director for Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who sponsored the legislation in the lower chamber.

An identical version of the bill in the Senate, sponsored by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, of Florida, was approved by the upper chamber committee soon afterwards.

“Getting out of the committee is the big step,” Sagnip said, adding that “a floor vote [in the full House of Representatives] will take place sometime in October”, most likely soon after Columbus Day, a US holiday, on October 14.

The legislation is intended to act as an amendment to the US-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, which kept US business and other ties to the city intact after its 1997 handover from Britain to China.

Additional reporting by Robert Delaney