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speaking for myself: i cannot support the hong kong autonomy act, which just passed the US senate unanimously. as gina chon wrote in reuters in may, sanctions have no obvious goal besides punishment. they are unlikely to deter & likely to spur retaliation https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests-breakingviews/breakingviews-us-sanctions-on-china-are-means-without-an-end-idUSKBN2352ZK
my criticism of hong kongers' US lobbying remains the same: tying hong kong's future to US-china conflict, siding with US, and escalating conflict without a viable off-ramp are dangerous mistakes. the new cold war does not protect but undermines hk's leverage as an intermediary.
track record of US sanctions shows they often have disastrous consequences: increasing international conflict rather than decreasing it, consolidating the power of the authoritarian regimes they target, all while wreaking real harm upon vulnerable people. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/sanctions-economy-foreign-policy/
as with the hk human rights and democracy act, i see no real benefit in the hong kong autonomy act for hong kong people. the united states' only "tools" are to increase conflict. some hong kongers may find vengeance cathartic, but this will not give us the hong kong we dream of.
