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US lawmakers urge sanctions against Hong Kong prosecutors for ‘undermining’ city’s rule of law

  • Move would offer ‘tangible demonstration’ of Biden administration’s interest in making officials uphold their legal obligations, they say
  • Advisory committee counts more than 10,000 people arrested on ‘political and protest-related offences’ since 2019

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Pro-democracy activists in Taipei hold up banners in support of Hong Kong during a rally in June marking the third anniversary of the start of mass protests in the former British colony. Photo: AFP
Owen Churchill
US lawmakers on an influential China policy advisory committee have urged President Joe Biden to enact sanctions against prosecutors in Hong Kong, alleging that the city’s judiciary has become an agent of political persecution.
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In a letter dated Wednesday, the legislators called on the Biden administration to sanction Hong Kong’s Department of Justice and prosecutors involved in political cases for “materially contributing to the failure” of China to meet its treaty obligations and for the “arbitrary detention of individuals for exercising universally recognised human rights”.

“Such sanctions will be a tangible demonstration of the administration’s interest in the [People’s Republic of China] and Hong Kong authorities upholding their international legal obligations as well as international interest in the release of political prisoners,” the bipartisan group of 12 senators and representatives wrote.

The lawmakers included Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, and Representative James McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, co-chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

Hong Kong priest protests against detention of activists under national security law
Established in 2000 to advise the administration on issues around human rights and the rule of law in China, CECC members are responsible for a number of high-profile bills challenging Beijing over its rights record in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Tibet, and Hong Kong.
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In their letter, the lawmakers pointed to sanctioning power provided to the administration in recent years by the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which direct the US government to punish individuals deemed responsible for human rights abuses and the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy.

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