US President Donald Trump promulgated on Wednesday, November 27, a law supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
Beijing on Thursday called the text "absolute abomination" and threatened Washington with reprisals, in full trade war between the two countries. Beijing has also summoned the US ambassador to China, calling on Washington to "not implement" the law.
The "Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act" was passed unanimously in the US Senate, controlled by Republicans last week, and with 417 votes in favor and one against the House of Representatives, where Democrats are in the majority.
This text provides that the State Department verifies at least once a year that Hong Kong, surrendered to China in 1997, has sufficient autonomy to continue to benefit from special US trade treatment. . An economic relationship that has allowed the former British colony to become a global financial hub.
The imposition of sanctions against representatives alleged to be violating human rights in the semi-autonomous territory is also planned.
Another measure is to ban exports of some riot gear to Hong Kong security forces.
"I signed these laws out of respect for President Xi (Jinping), China, and the people of Hong Kong," Donald Trump said in a statement. "They are promulgated in the hope that leaders and representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to settle their differences amicably to lead to lasting peace and prosperity for all."
Serious interference
The Hong Kong government, which has expressed opposition to the law promulgated by the US president, believes that it sends a bad signal to the protesters.
Beijing has already warned that China will take "firm countermeasures" if the United States continues to interfere in the affairs of Hong Kong and China.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this law constitutes a serious interference in Chinese internal affairs. He also stressed that the US approaches were "doomed to failure".
In a separate statement, he announced that he had summoned the US ambassador to Beijing and asked him to stop Washington's interference and stop harming US-China relations further.
Following the vote in the US Congress, Chinese diplomacy said it was a form of encouragement for the violence that has shaken Hong Kong for several months.
Sino-US relations
For his part, Donald Trump had boasted that he alone had prevented Beijing from launching a massive military operation in Hong Kong to put an end to the dispute. The US president added that he told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that such intervention by China would "significantly" undermine Sino-US trade negotiations.
In the press release announcing the promulgation of the law, Donald Trump says he has reservations about parts of the text - a common approach when a chairman wants to stress that he has executive powers to act in foreign affairs as he sees fit.
On this point, a person familiar with the issue said that in expressing his reservations, the US President may be trying to reassure China that he will not implement the more stringent law, unless the crackdown on demonstrations was to increase in Hong Kong.
The same source said the US president's advisers also debated last week the assumption that a promulgation of the text could undermine efforts to end the trade dispute with China.
With Reuters and AFP