Opinion | Far from ruining Hong Kong, America’s human rights and democracy bill could be used to cool things down

The United States’ Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which was just passed by the Senate, is remarkable as much for its attempt to champion a city far across the Pacific as for its unprecedented bipartisanship. Ironically, Hong Kong – with its sharply polarised society – has wrought political unity in a country riven by righteous rage.

The act may have a limited positive effect on Hong Kong’s fortunes but will certainly drive a bigger wedge between Washington and Beijing in their damaging trade war. The implied threat that Hong Kong may lose its special freewheeling trade status to deny China an economic lifeline runs the risk of transforming a weakening territory into a non-asset for both China and the West. Could the doctor kill the patient?

Rule of law is what enables Hong Kong’s high level of autonomy and freedoms. As former judge Henry Litton rightly stressed, common law holds the territory together and makes it such a valuable player on the financial stage. He argues that strengthening, not weakening, “one country, two systems” might encourage Beijing to extend the common-law lease after 2047.

The genesis of the American legislative brouhaha goes back to the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, which allows the US to view a highly autonomous Hong Kong as separate from China in matters of trade and international economic discourse. The act supports democratisation as a “fundamental principle of United States foreign policy” and human rights “as a basis for Hong Kong's continued economic prosperity”.

The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act reaffirms this, with sharper teeth. It introduces sanctions for those “undermining fundamental freedoms and autonomy” in the territory and specifies support for the “selection of the chief executive and all members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage, as articulated in the Basic Law”.