Stay out of HK affairs: City warns US

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Hong Kong, July 4 (IANS) The US has no right to intervene in Hong Kong's internal affairs, the city government said in an online statement, a day after the American Senate unanimously passed a punitive sanctions bill in reaction to the controversial new National Security Law imposed by China.

"Once again, we urge the US Congress to immediately stop interfering in HKSAR's internal matters," the South China Morning Post quoted the statement, by an unidentified spokesman, as saying on the Hong Kong government's website on Friday.

"The act and the so-called sanctions are totally unacceptable. They will not deter us but will only harm the relations and common interests between Hong Kong and the US," the statement said.

"The implementation of the one country, two systems principle in the HKSAR is entirely the internal affairs of the PRC (People's Republic of China)."

The Hong Kong Autonomy Act passed the US House of Representatives without objection on Wednesday, and was approved by the Senate unanimously the following day.

It now awaits President Donald Trump's decision to enact it into law or veto it, though a veto would likely be overturned by a broad bipartisan majority in the Congress.

The legislation would require the US government to punish individuals, along with financial institutions that knowingly conduct business with them, for "materially contributing" to any failure by the Chinese government to live up to its obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration or Hong Kong Basic Law.

The national security law, which Beijing put into effect and made public late on Tuesday night, on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from British to Chinese rule, criminalises a wide range of behaviour and acts under four categories of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with a foreign power.

--IANS

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