US House moves to sanction Chinese banks over new HK security law

(Sharecast News) - Lawmakers in the US moved a step closer to retaliating against Beijing's decision to change Hong Kong's security laws to clamp down on dissent.
On Wednesday, the lower chamber of Congress, approved legislation that would punish lenders for doing business with Chinese officials involved in implementing the new security law.

The vote in the US House of Representatives was unanimous, a sign of the widespread concern on Capitol Hill about Beijing's increasingly authoritarian stance.

The legislation will now return to the Senate, where it had already been approved during the previous week, before going to the President's desk for ratification.

According to US House majority leader Nancy Pelosi, the new security bill marked the death of the "One Country, Two Systems" principle.

"The law is a brutal, sweeping crackdown against the people of Hong Kong, intended to destroy the freedoms they were promised," she said.

In the background, the US had already begun to remove some of the privileges enjoyed by Hong Kong up until now, including barring defence exports and access to high-technology products.