米俐的部落格

The vote marks a challenge to the government in Beijing just as the U.S. and China, the world’s largest economies, seek to close a preliminary agreement to end their trade war. The Senate measure would require annual reviews of Hong Kong’s special status under U.S. law to assess the extent to which China has chipped away the city’s autonomy.

”The United States has treated commerce and trade with Hong Kong differently than it has commercial and trade activity with the mainland of China,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, the bill’s lead sponsor, said on the Senate floor. “But what’s happened over the last few years is the steady effort on the part of Chinese authorities to erode that autonomy and those freedoms.”

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A demonstrator prepares to throw a petrol bomb towards riot police during a protest in Hong Kong on Nov. 18.

Photographer: Justin Chin/Bloomberg

Hong Kong’s position as a global financial hub has already been shaken by months of protests and police responses that have grown increasingly violent. U.S. lawmakers have voiced strong support for the demonstrators and warned China against responding with violence.

The legislation comes at a difficult time for Trump as his administration is trying to complete the first phase of a long-awaited trade deal with China. Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that it would be difficult for the U.S. to sign a trade agreement with China if the demonstrations in Hong Kong are met with violence.

“The president’s made it clear it’ll be very hard for us to do a deal with China if there’s any violence or if that matter is not treated properly and humanely,” Pence said in an interview with Indianapolis-based radio host Tony Katz.

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Mitch McConnell

Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday urged Trump to personally voice support for the protesters, which he hasn’t yet done. Nor has Trump indicated whether he would sign the legislation if it gets to his desk.

The House unanimously passed a similar bill last month, but slight differences mean both chambers still have to pass the same version before sending it to the president.

Unanimous Support

The Senate measure passed by unanimous consent, which means there was no roll call vote because no senators objected to it. Rubio said on Twitter before the vote Tuesday that the bill, S. 1838, will “head over to the U.S. House & then hopefully swiftly to the President.”

That is one option: The House could simply take up the Senate bill. The other option would be to reconcile the differences between the two versions and have both chambers vote on the compromise bill.

Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, the lead Republican sponsor of the House bill, said he expects the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees to go for the latter option to work out the slight differences. He said the resulting compromise could be included in a defense bill slated for a vote later this year.

“We have to get it passed and we have to get it passed quickly,” Smith said. The legislation tells protesters that “Congress has their back, that we are fully supportive of democracy and rule of law in Hong Kong.”

“It tells Xi Jinping that there’s a price,” he said of China’s president. “There’s one provision after another that says, ‘we’re not kidding.’”

The bill would also sanction Chinese officials deemed responsible for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy.

The Senate on Tuesday also unanimously passed a bill to ban the export of munitions such as tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to the Hong Kong police force. The House would still have to pass the same version of this measure as well for it to go to Trump to be signed into law.

‘Quest for Power’

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly warned that there would be “strong countermeasures” for passing legislation supporting the Hong Kong protesters. That could affect the delicate negotiations between the world’s two largest economies to get the trade deal over the finish line.

“What was already complicated just got more complicated, and the bill’s passage adds to the growing list of political reasons why Xi and Trump are unlikely to find a compromise,” said Jude Blanchette, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “While Xi has more control over the domestic political environment in China, he’s not immune from the bad optics of negotiating with a government that he claims is tampering with his own political system.”

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The timeline for completing the trade agreement could collide with this legislation landing on Trump’s desk. A congressional aide said the Senate measure was drafted with help from Treasury and State Department officials, but a senior administration official on Monday cautioned that Trump’s seal of approval is the only one that matters.

Because the Hong Kong bill passed both the House and the Senate without a single lawmaker objecting, there would probably be enough support to override a presidential veto.

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Josh Hawley

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

“Today’s vote sends a clear message that the United States will continue to stand with the people of Hong Kong as they battle Beijing’s imperialism,” said Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. “The Chinese Communist Party’s quest for power across the region is a direct threat to America’s security and prosperity.”

— With assistance by Naoreen Chowdhury, Jenny Leonard, and Jordan Fabian

(Updates with additional Senate bill beginning in the 15th paragraph.)

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美國參議院在美國東岸時間傍晚 6 時，正式以「一致通過方式」（Unanimous Consent）通過《香港人權民主法案》的參議院版本，也通過了有關限制非致命武器出口的《保護香港法案》。

一直與當地支持法案的國會議員接觸的香港眾志指，由於參議院通過的與眾議院的《人權民主法案》並非同一版本，因此在感恩節假期後，兩院將需要處理法案之間差異，才可以交到總統簽署。香港眾志表示在港美兩地的團隊會繼續跟進事態，並努力爭取兩院能盡快協調相同的法案條文。

由於參眾兩院的法案版本稍有不同，故法案需要交到眾議院再進行表決，再交予美國總統特朗普簽署後正式生效。

法案提案人盧比奧（Marco Rubio）上周在眾議院外交事務委員會主席恩格爾（Eliot Engel）及參議院外交關係委員會主席里施（Jim Risch）陪同下，與參議院多數黨領袖麥康奈爾（Mitch McConnell）會面，商討香港情況，之後就審議法案達成共識，將《香港人權及民主法案》提交大會審議，並啟動最快速的「熱線」（hotline）機制。在此機制下，在一段時間內沒有參議員反對的話，就當作一致通過《法案》的參議院版本。

上月美國眾議院全體議員一致同意通過《香港人權與民主法案》。法案要求國務卿向國會提交年度報告，評估香港是否繼續享受不同於中國大陸的特殊待遇，要求國務院不應根據被捕記錄，對香港民主和平抗爭人士拒發簽證。法案還要求總統制定制裁名單，對侵蝕香港自治和法治的人士實施拒絕入境、凍結在美資產等形式的制裁。