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WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 Sure Hong Kong Residents, in August 2021 for 18 months. It was set to run out on Feb. 5.
The choice to present a brief secure 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 motion, we're demonstrating once more President Biden’s robust assist for the individuals of Hong Kong within the face of accelerating repression by the (Individuals's Republic of China)," the White Home Nationwide Safety Council mentioned in an announcement. "We proceed to strongly oppose the PRC’s use of its Nationwide Safety Legislation to disclaim the individuals of Hong Kong their human rights and elementary freedoms, undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy, and chip away at Hong Kong’s remaining democratic processes and establishments.”
The Chinese language authorities moved to stifle opposition following protests in Hong Kong in 2019 towards a proposed regulation permitting extraditions to mainland China. Beneath the nationwide safety regulation, which took impact in June 2020, police have cracked down on opposition politicians, activists and demonstrators.
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Modifications had been additionally made to Hong Kong’s election legal guidelines to cut back the variety of instantly elected lawmakers and provides a largely pro-Beijing committee the leeway to appoint lawmakers aligned with the mainland authorities.
Since China imposed its nationwide safety regulation, at the very least 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 international nation or exterior components, in keeping with the White Home.
Moreover, it mentioned 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.
Along with criticizing Beijing's crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong, Biden has repeatedly taken China to activity for human rights abuses towards the Uyghurs and different ethnic minorities, coercive commerce practices, navy provocations towards self-ruled Taiwan and variations over Russia’s prosecution of its struggle towards Ukraine.
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