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

Pan-democrats could persuade protesters to claim the US-sponsored act as a moral victory, vent their steam through the district council elections and win bigger support to revisit universal suffrage in the Legislative Council

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A protester at Polytechnic University in Hong Kong on November 16 under the message: “Liberty or Death”. A third option might be to effect change from within, starting with the district council elections. Photo: Reuters

Vijay Verghese

Vijay Verghese is a Hong Kong-based journalist and editor of the online magazines AsianConversations.

Published: 9:43am, 20 Nov 2019Updated: 9:49am, 20 Nov 2019

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?

If Hong Kong lost its lustre as a bargaining chip for trade, Taiwan, and capital inflow, it would hasten the end of “one country, two systems”. This would be devastating for the embattled territory.