GOP Senator Urges UN Resolution on China’s Hong Kong Actions
GOP Senator Urges UN Resolution Condemning China Over Hong Kong
(Bloomberg) -- A Republican senator put additional pressure on China over Hong Kong protests, calling for a United Nations resolution condemning Beijing for its crackdown just as Congress rushed to pass a bill supporting demonstrators.
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, wrote to UN Ambassador Kelly Craft asking her to introduce a resolution “to condemn and hold accountable the People’s Republic of China” for human rights violations in Hong Kong.
“The Hong Kong executive has authorized violent force against unarmed demonstrators, has radically restricted the right of citizens to peaceably assemble, has intervened in District Council candidate selection, has illegally banned the use of face masks, and repeatedly laid siege to Hong Kong universities,” Hawley said in the letter.
Hawley also said that the UN’s Committee Against Torture should investigate the Chinese government’s treatment of protesters in Hong Kong.
Craft said in an emailed statement that she is “committed to supporting human dignity and advancing the cause of human rights at every available opportunity.”
Hawley is one of the Senate co-sponsors of the bill passed by Congress on Wednesday that would review Hong Kong’s special status under U.S. law and sanction Chinese officials deemed responsible for human rights violations. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law, according to a person familiar with his plans.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton, John Harney
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.