Senate sends China sanctions over Hong Kong crackdown to Trump's desk

Bill would empower the president to seize assets of Chinese officials who undermine former British colony's autonomy and bar them from US shores

The Senate has unanimously passed a punitive sanctions bill against Chinese officials after the government there passed a national security law that experts say erodes Hong Kong's autonomy.

The sanctions bill, which passed with unanimous approval in the House on Wednesday, now heads to Donald Trump's desk, forcing the president to possibly offend his self-described "friend," Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom he hopes to craft a second trade pact should he win re-election in the fall.

Specifically, the bill would impose sanctions on Chinese officials and any Hong Kong police units clashing with protesters by penalising banks that do business with them.

It would also require the US State Department to produce an annual report for Congress on Chinese officials who have subverted Hong Kong and China's “one country, two systems” governing structure.

It also would empower the president to seize assets of those people and turn them away from US shores.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a rare appearance at a House Armed Services Committee hearing this week urging members to vote for the sanctions and condemn the communist Chinese government's latest action in Hong Kong.

The sanctions are an "urgently needed response to the cowardly Chinese government’s passage of its so-called ‘national security’ law, which threatens the end of the ‘one country, two systems’ promised exactly 23 years ago today," Ms Pelosi later said in a statement.

"All freedom-loving people must condemn this horrific law, which is purpose-built to dismantle democratic freedoms in Hong Kong," she said.

Vice President Mike Pence echoed Ms Pelosi's concerns in an interview with CNBC on Thursday, saying the new law in Hong Kong is "a betrayal of the international agreement that they signed" in 1984 with the United Kingdom that grants Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy from the Chinese mainland government.

The White House has, however, signalled its aversion recently to further upsetting the US's already fraught relationship with China ahead of the 2020 presidential election, fearing China could pull out of key trade agreements that have provided a boost to the US economy, especially farmers. That group is part of the voting coalition that pushed Mr Trump to victory in swing states with big agriculture sectors, like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Mr Trump has not indicated whether he will sign the bill, though with the sanctions passing both chambers of Congress unanimously this week, the measure appears veto-proof. (Both chambers could simply vote to override Mr Trump's veto.)

China’s foreign ministry has warned of “strong countermeasures” against the US if the bill passed by the House and Senate this week becomes law.

The US is far from the only country that has taken punitive measures against China.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that the new Chinese law was a “clear and serious breach” of the handover agreement through which the city was returned to China in 1997 after 150 years of British colonial rule.

In response, he said, the UK will now open up visa restrictions for all Hong Kong citizens born before the 1997 handover, potentially offering a route to citizenship for up to 2.9m people.