By Jessie Pang, HONG KONG
China warned the United States on Thursday it would take
“firm counter measures” in response to U.S. legislation backing anti-government
protesters in Hong Kong, and said attempts to interfere in the Chinese-ruled
city were doomed to fail.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed
into law congressional legislation which supported the protesters despite angry
objections from Beijing, with which he is seeking a deal to end a damaging
trade war.
The legislation requires the State Department to
certify, at least annually, that Hong Kong is autonomous enough to justify
favorable U.S. trading terms that have helped the territory grow as a world
financial center. It also threatens sanctions for human rights violations.
Beijing warned that the United
States would shoulder the consequences of China’s counter measures if it
continued to “act arbitrarily” in regards to Hong Kong, according to a foreign
ministry statement.
Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed
government said the legislation sent the wrong signal to demonstrators and
“clearly interfered” with the city’s internal affairs.
Anti-government protests have
roiled the former British colony for six months, at times forcing businesses,
government, schools and even the international airport to close.
The financial hub has enjoyed
a rare lull in violence over the past week, with local elections on Sunday
delivering a landslide victory to pro-democracy candidates.
Hong Kong police entered the
Polytechnic University on Thursday at the end of a nearly two-week siege that
saw some of the worst clashes between protesters and security forces.
It was not clear whether any
protesters remained at the site as a team of about 100 plain-clothed police
moved into the sprawling campus to collect evidence and remove dangerous items
such as petrol bombs. Police said any protesters found would receive medical
treatment and arrests were not a priority.
The university became a
battleground in mid-November, when protesters barricaded themselves in and clashed
with riot police in a hail of petrol bombs, water cannon and tear gas. About
1,100 people were arrested last week, some while trying to escape.
Reuters witnesses at the university said garbage
and abandoned gear including sleeping bags, helmets and gas masks were strewn
everywhere, but no protesters could be seen.
More than 5,800 people have been arrested since the
unrest broke out in June over a proposal to allow extraditions to mainland
China, the numbers increasing exponentially in October and November as violence
escalated.
Demonstrators are angry at police violence and what
they see as Chinese meddling in the freedoms promised to the former British
colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, such as an independent
judiciary.
China says it is committed to the “one country, two
systems” formula put in place at the handover and has blamed foreign forces for
fomenting the unrest, an allegation repeated on Thursday in response to the
U.S. law.
“This so-called legislation will only strengthen
the resolve of the Chinese people, including the Hong Kong people, and raise
awareness of the sinister intentions and hegemonic nature of the U.S. The U.S.
plot is doomed,” the Chinese foreign ministry statement said.Some analysts say
any move to end Hong Kong’s special treatment could prove self-defeating for
the United States, which has benefited from the business-friendly conditions in
the territory of 7.4 million residents.
Trade between Hong Kong and the United States was
estimated to be worth $67.3 billion in 2018, with the United States running a
$33.8 billion surplus - its biggest with any country or territory, according to
the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Li Ka-shing, the city’s most prominent tycoon, told
Reuters he was getting used to “the unfounded verbal and text punches” thrown
at him by both sides of the political divide in Hong Kong.
Li and his fellow Hong Kong tycoons are under
mounting pressure from Beijing to speak out against the protests, which present
the most serious challenge to Communist Party rule since Tiananmen.
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