{"id":5252,"date":"2015-06-14T23:28:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T03:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=5252"},"modified":"2015-06-13T23:30:29","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T03:30:29","slug":"legislators-rights-advocates-urge-more-us-action-on-hong-kong-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/legislators-rights-advocates-urge-more-us-action-on-hong-kong-reforms","title":{"rendered":"Legislators, Rights Advocates Urge More US Action on Hong Kong Reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"0D710126-ACFB-479C-ABEF-86C749AA9AA2_w640_r1_s_cx0_cy11_cw0\"<\/a>FILE – From right: Prince Wong, Joshua Wong and Isabella Lo walk at the occupied area outside government headquarters during their hunger strike in Hong Kong Wednesday, Dec.3, 2014.<\/p>\n

June 13, 2015 9:28 AM<\/p>\n

Members of U.S. Congress and human rights groups are urging the U.S. government to do more for Hong Kong\u2019s democracy ahead of a vote next week in Hong Kong on the territory\u2019s electoral reform package.<\/p>\n

At a hearing on the democratic developments in Asia on Thursday, Representative Matt Salmon (R-AZ), chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, said 2015 is a critical year for Hong Kong\u2019s democracy, but he is skeptical of the electoral reform package.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very concerned that the freedom fighters are feeling a little bit lonely there [in Hong Kong],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The controversial package will allow all eligible voters in Hong Kong to choose the next chief executive in 2017, but limit the number of candidates to two or three approved by a nominating committee.<\/p>\n

Congressman Salmon, who recently led a congressional delegation to Hong Kong, said the U.S. can do more to embolden democracy in Hong Kong. \u201cEvery time we do, China says \u2018hands off\u2019 and \u2018it\u2019s a domestic issue,’\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But, he said, \u201cany voice we can give collectively as a Congress, as administration to keep that idea alive, as far as universal suffrage in selection of their chief executive, I think that\u2019s really important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Obama administration has always said supporting human rights and democracy is a central component to U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n

At Thursday\u2019s hearing, Scot Marciel, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, told Congress the U.S. believes that \u201cthe legitimacy of Hong Kong\u2019s chief executive and its overall governance would be greatly enhanced if the people of Hong Kong were given the opportunity to select their chief executive through a competitive election featuring a meaningful choice of candidates who represent the voters\u2019 will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have consistently called for an electoral process that would produce that result,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some human rights advocates say the U.S. is not doing enough to support Hong Kong democracy.<\/p>\n

Sophie Richardson, the China director of Human Rights Watch said, \u201cthere are many steps the U.S. can take \u2014 speaking up more frequently, being seen, meeting with full diversity of actors of Hong Kong.\u201d<\/p>\n

 
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FILE – From right: Prince Wong, Jo … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,370],"tags":[317,90,477],"views":5342,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5254,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5252\/revisions\/5254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}