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 crowd control and surveillance equipment to the city, expanding the scope of the 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.
"I don't think that leaking an American diplomat's private information, pictures, names of their children " I don't think that is a formal protest. That is what a thuggish regime would do," US State Department Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said at a news briefing in Washington after the paper's report was published.
The Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong denounced Ortagus' remarks "as a blatant slander against China" that "has confounded right with wrong and again exposed US gangster logic and hegemonic thinking".
The US legislative action has gained momentum as demonstrations, some violent, have continued into a fourth month to sporadically block major thoroughfares and other transport infrastructure in Hong Kong. Rubio's bill now has 22 cosponsors, up from seven when he introduced it in June.
Thousands attended a rally in Hong Kong late on Friday to raise concerns over a remote police holding centre, following allegations of maltreatment of anti-government protesters detained there.
Riot police fire beanbag rounds on Hong Kong protesters on September 8. A House bill introduced this week would prohibit US companies from exporting tear gas and other "non-lethal" crowd control items to Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So alt=Riot police fire beanbag rounds on Hong Kong protesters on September 8. A House bill introduced this week would prohibit US companies from exporting tear gas and other "non-lethal" crowd control items to Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So