Pence urges China to respect Hong Kong laws amid protest

Reuters - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged China on Monday (August 19) to respect the integrity of Hong Kong's laws and repeated President Donald Trump's warning that it will be harder for the United States to make a trade deal with Beijing if there was violence in the Chinese-ruled city. "For the United States to make a deal with China, Beijing needs to honor its commitments --- beginning with the commitment China made in 1984 to respect the integrity of Hong Kong's laws through the Sino-British Joint Declaration," Pence said in an address at the Detroit Economic Club. "Our administration will continue to urge Beijing to act in a humanitarian manner and urge China and the demonstrators in Hong Kong to resolve their differences peacefully," Pence said. The Hong Kong protests, which have presented one of the biggest challenges for Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012, began in June as opposition to a now-suspended bill that would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial in Communist Party-controlled courts. They have since swelled into wider calls for democracy. Hong Kong is gearing up for additional protests this week after hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators braved heavy rain to rally peacefully on Sunday, marking a change to what have often been violent clashes.