President Joe Biden on Thursday signed off on a two-year extension of a program that protects Hong Kong residents within the U.S. from deportation, renewing the safety till January 2025.
Biden first licensed this system, the Deferred Enforced Departure for Certain Hong Kong Citizens, in August 2021 for 18 months. It was set to run out on February 5.
The choice to offer a brief protected haven was in response to Hong Kong’s sweeping nationwide safety regulation and different measures that undercut the rights promised when the previous British colony was handed again to China in 1997.
“With this action, we are demonstrating again President Biden’s strong support for the people of Hong Kong in the face of increasing repression by the (People’s Republic of China),” the White House National Security Council said in a statement. “We continue to strongly oppose the PRC’s use of its National Security Law to deny the people of Hong Kong their human rights and fundamental freedoms, undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy, and chip away at Hong Kong’s remaining democratic processes and institutions.”
The Chinese authorities moved to stifle opposition following protests in Hong Kong in 2019 towards a proposed regulation permitting extraditions to mainland China. Under the nationwide safety regulation, which took impact in June 2020, police have cracked down on opposition politicians, activists and demonstrators.
Changes had been additionally made to Hong Kong’s election legal guidelines to scale back the variety of immediately elected lawmakers and provides a largely pro-Beijing committee the leeway to appoint lawmakers aligned with the mainland authorities.
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, stated in an announcement that the Biden administration transfer additional uncovered the United States’ “sinister intention” to undermine stability in Hong Kong and “contain China’s development.”
“We urge the U.S. to stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs,” he stated.
Since China imposed its nationwide safety regulation, no less than 150 opposition politicians, activists and protesters have been taken into custody on politically motivated fees, together with secession, subversion, terrorist actions, and collusion with a overseas nation or exterior components, in line with the White House.
Additionally, it stated 1,200 political prisoners at the moment are behind bars, and over 10,000 individuals have been arrested on different fees in reference to anti-government protests.
In addition to criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong, Biden has repeatedly taken China to process for human rights abuses towards the Uyghurs and different ethnic minorities, coercive commerce practices, army provocations towards self-ruled Taiwan and variations over Russia’s prosecution of its conflict towards Ukraine.
Source: www.thehindu.com