Two prominent members of the U.S. Congress issued a stern warning to China on Friday in response to arrest warrants issued for six pro-democracy activists, including a U.S citizen, under Hong Kong’s new national security law.
Chinese state television said Friday Hong Kong authorities had issued warrants for Nathan Law, Wayne Chan Ka-kui, Honcques Laus, Simon Cheng, Ray Wong Toi-yeung and Samuel Chu, a U.S. citizen. The six have fled the territory and are wanted on suspicion of violating the national security legislation that entered into force a month ago.
Congressman Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senator Robert Menendez, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement, “If Beijing thinks that this effort will silence those who stand for freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, it is gravely mistaken: Today we are all Hong Kongers.”
Engel and Menendez said they were deeply concerned by the decision of pro-Beijing authorities of the semi-autonomous territory, which included “an extraterritorial warrant for the arrest of an individual who has been a United States citizen for over two decades.”
“This action only further undermines the credibility of China as a responsible rule-abiding member of the international community,” they said.