Hong Kong Activist Lee Cheuk Yan testified at the Senate Banking Committee for Hong Kong Autonomy Act

Hong Kong Watch recommended Lee Cheuk Yan, a veteran labor leader and the General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, to testify at the US Senate Banking Committee hearing on 4 June.

Senator Pat Toomey introduced the "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" at the US Senate to push back Chinese Communist Party's aggression to Hong Kong. The bill will penalise banks with secondary sanctions that carry out "significant transactions" with Chinese entities involved in suppressing Hong Kong's freedoms and violating the city's autonomy. The Act will also impose mandatory sanctions on entities that violate China's obligations to Hong Kong under the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, including police units cracking down on Hong Kong protestors or Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for imposing the National Security Law on Hong Kong.

During the hearing, Lee Cheuk Yan and Eric Lorber, senior director of the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, answered questions on whether the new legislation with financial sanction could be act as an deterrence.

"I would be very interested in pursuing policy changes here in the United States that would be such an option available for people in Hong Kong to come to America. It would be wonderful for the people of Hong Kong and it would also be wonderful for America", said Senator Pat Toomey during the US Senate Banking Committee hearing on June 4. 

WATCH the hearing here.