The US House of Representatives on Wednesday last week sent the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act to the White House after the US Senate had unanimously passed it the day before. Anti-government demonstrators have protested in the streets of Hong Kong for six months amid increasing violence and fears that China will ratchet up its response to stop the civil disobedience. The protesters are angry at what they see as Chinese meddling in the freedoms promised to Hong Kong when Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997. A US embassy spokesman said that Branstad told Zheng that the US was watching events in Hong Kong “with grave concern.”“He conveyed that we condemn all forms of violence and intimidation. The Sino-British Joint Declaration is the 1984 agreement of the terms under which Britain would return Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997, and included the promise of a “high degree of autonomy” for Hong Kong for 50 years from that date.

Source: Taipei Times November 26, 2019 15:56 UTC