File The U.S. Congress Passes the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019
[Sejong Commentary] No. 2019-30
Kim Ki-Soo (Senior Research Fellow, The Sejong Institute)
On November 19 and 20, The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 passed the US Senate and the House of Representatives respectively. It became clear that the US holds a unified opinion towards the China issue. Before Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, the US Congress passed the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992. The legislation stated that the US will regard Hong Kong as a separate and independent entity from China, and that it will provide special assistance such as granting Hong Kong the access to sensitive US science and technology, free exchange of US dollar and Hong Kong currency, granting exclusive economic and trade privileges, and providing favorable conditions on issuing visas, executing legislation, investment and many others. For instance, the high tariffs imposed by the Trump administration towards Chinese products were not applied to Hong Kong’s export goods.
The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 is closely related to the aforementioned Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992. The core content of the 2019 bill is that the US administration has an obligation to assess the appropriateness of the US‘s special treatment to Hong Kong, and in doing so the main focuses on the Secretary of State’s confirmation on the autonomy of Hong Kong. If Hong Kong fails to meet such standard, then the US will deprive it of the special rights granted to Hong Kong. On this bill, special treatments such as export ban of the products used for suppressing demonstration, refusing the issuance of visa as well as freezing of assets of individuals deemed to restrict Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedom are included. Regarding the autonomy of Hong Kong, the bill firmly states the following: “the United States support the implementation of free and fair election system for Hong Kong Chief Executive and congressmen by the year 2020.”
For a certain period of time, many have forgotten about the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992. There is no record of Chinese government issuing complaint against such legislation. Preferably, the Chinese government welcomed such measures. It was because China had a lot to gain through Hong Kong’s free and open economic environment. Important to note here is the US’s perception towards Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Policy Act states that it is the US’s imperative concern and ideal in terms of foreign policy that Hong Kong becomes and remains a free society. European and East Asian countries may find it difficult to understand the US’s ideology-driven perception and its foreign policy. However, it is important to note that since its foundation, America has been what it is now. The values the US pursued and finally achieved through struggle against Britain were considered an absolute creed; something that should be spread to and shared with the international community. The Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 well reflects such inclination.
It seems that China is not well aware of the nature of the US. China believes that as long as it imports more products from the US, and limit its export to the US, the current trade war will come to an end. Also, China believes that since the administration changes every four years in the US, as long as it buys enough time for the administration to change, China will successfully overcome current difficulties. However, as the tension rises between the two countries, it has become evident that what the US wants is something more grand than simple settlement of the current trade imbalance. Ultimately, the US aims to change China to become a free and open market society with liberalized polity, and become a country advocating universal human rights values and protecting its people.
What picture can be drawn if we apply the above mentioned logic to the Hong Kong incident? Important to note is that the US-China relations started to become political as the Hong Kong incident and human rights issues took momentum. This signals the upcoming difficulties in improving the relations of the two. As China continues to oppress Hong Kong, the US will initiate a full-blown economic sanction against China and Hong Kong. The legitimacy and method of intervention is well stipulated in The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. This is something different compared to the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident; even though the Communist Party harshly suppressed the demonstration, many countries in the West including the US were reluctant to wield high level sanction against China. Those were the days when the international community shared a consensus to give China a chance to gradually become liberalized.
Over the past decade, Chinese Communist Party’s concentration of power and its mercantile foreign economic policy have ultimately changed the perception of the West, especially the US. If China harshly suppresses the current demonstration in Hong Kong, the West will respond more explicitly than they did back in 1989. As tensions escalate, there is high probability that US’s economic sanction geared towards Hong Kong will be initiated, and other western countries such as Britain will take part in that process. When economic sanction reaches its peak, China may risk losing Hong Kong as the main hub of international finance. Economic sanction against the mainland is also a viable option, deepening the concerns of the Chinese Communist Party as it may trigger the ultimate collapse of Chinese economy.
※ Translator’s note: This is a summarized unofficial translation of the original paper which was written in Korean. All references should be made to the original paper.
※ This article is written based on the author’s personal opinions and does not reflect the views of the Sejong Institute.