China warns US over HK law

China warned the United States on Thursday that it would take ‘firm counter measures’ in response to US legislation backing anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, and said attempts to interfere in the Chinese-ruled city were doomed to fail.

US president Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law congressional legislation which supported the protesters, despite angry objections from Beijing, with which he is seeking a deal to end a damaging trade war.

Protesters in Hong Kong responded by staging a ‘Thanksgiving’ rally, with thousands, some draped in US flags, gathering in the heart of the city.

‘The rationale for us having this rally is to show our gratitude and thank the U.S Congress and also President Trump for passing the bill,’ said 23-year-old Sunny Cheung, a member of the student group that lobbied for the legislation.

‘We are really grateful about that and we really appreciate the effort made by Americans who support Hong Kong, who stand with Hong Kong, who do not choose to side with Beijing,’ he said, urging other countries to pass similar legislation.

The law requires the state department to certify, at least annually, that Hong Kong is autonomous enough to justify favourable US trading terms that have helped it become a world financial centre.

It also threatens sanctions for human rights violations.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the United States would shoulder the consequences of China’s countermeasures if it continued to ‘act arbitrarily’ in regards to Hong Kong.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng summoned US ambassador Terry Branstad and demanded that Washington immediately stop interfering in China’s domestic affairs.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong police on Friday withdrew from a university campus trashed by weeks of clashes as pro-democracy activists canvassed social media to promote more protests at the weekend.

Senior members of Hong Kong Polytechnic University toured buildings strewn with debris after police left, including a sports hall and a ruined Starbucks outlet, seeing smashed windows and charred piles of former barricades.

After more than five months of increasingly violent demonstrations, the Chinese-ruled city has enjoyed relative calm since local elections on Sunday delivered an overwhelming victory to pro-democracy candidates.

Activists are trying to keep up momentum, after winning backing from U.S. President Donald Trump that has renewed global attention on the Asian financial hub and infuriated Beijing.

‘Many classrooms, laboratories and library were destroyed. Even so, there’s been no loss of life. We insisted on adopting a humane way to solve the crisis,’ university president Teng Jin-Guang told reporters, saying the next semester would go ahead on time.

Located on Kowloon peninsula, the campus became a battleground earlier this month when protesters barricaded themselves in and fought riot police in a hail of petrol bombs, water cannon and tear gas.

Police arrested more than 1,300 people during the turmoil at the university, Kwok Ka-chuen, a senior police official, told reporters on Friday. A total of 5,890 people have been arrested since early June, he added.

Before police left, they seized nearly 4,000 Molotov cocktails and hundreds of bottles of chemicals, Kwok said.

At one point on Friday, a man and woman emerged from the campus wearing black face masks and walked out hand-in-hand, with no sign of police.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net