A US bill to sanction Hong Kong officials, legal figures will not derail meeting between President Xi Jinping and America’s Joe Biden, experts predict
- International law expert predicts US ‘provocative move’ on sanctions will not be allowed in run-up to Xi-Biden meeting later this month
- US sanctions bill to target 49 officials and legal figures surfaces as Jinping-Biden meeting at Apec in San Francisco announced
Hong Kong academics and a former diplomat have predicted that proposed US legislation drawn up to sanction 49 city officials and judges is unlikely to derail an expected meeting between the leaders of China and America later this month.
But the experts warned the city might come under more political pressure in the run-up to the next US presidential elections, almost exactly a year away.
The Hong Kong Sanctions Act is a bipartisan bid by American legislators in the House of Representatives and the Senate designed to get the administration of US President Joe Biden to penalise 49 city officials, judges and prosecutors for their roles in “human rights violations” under the Beijing-imposed national security law.
Ryan Mitchell, an associate professor of law at Chinese University, on Friday said the proposed legislation would not become a major factor in the run-up to the meeting as neither Biden nor his Democratic Party would be interested in a “provocative move” that could damage prospects of an improvement in relations between the two countries.