US Congress 'likely To Back HK Rights Bill'

Washington-based analyst Barry Wood says he expects the US Congress to pass a law intended to safeguard human rights and promote democracy in Hong Kong, but Washington is unlikely to include a clause on the SAR's situation in a future trade deal with Washington.

The Demosisto secretary general, Joshua Wong, called for the inclusion of such a clause in any new trade agreement ahead of his visit to the United States this week, where he will also lobby in support of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

"This measure is likely to be approved by the Congress once the Senate fully returns and is back to business in October," Wood said of the act. "It is intimately linked, in my view, with the outcome of the trade talks that will begin in October. But of course it would have bipartisan support."

However he said the chances of a Hong Kong clause being included in a trade deal were "almost nil", because "the president has been very cautious in terms of making any kind of a link between Hong Kong and the trade negotiations".

Wong will testify before a Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing, along with singer and activist Denise Ho,Sunny Cheung of the Hong Kong Higher Education International Affairs Delegation and academics Sharon Hom and Dan Garrett.