US says electoral changes in Hong Kong ‘assault on democracy’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says new rules run counter to promises made at the handover in 1997.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned China’s approval of sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system, calling the move an “assault on democracy” and a “direct attack” on the autonomy promised for the territory when it was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. In a statement on Thursday, just hours after Beijing approved its plan to veto candidates for political office in Hong Kong, Blinken said the measures ran counter to the objective that Hong Kong elections “should progress towards universal suffrage”. The territory’s Basic Law, its mini constitution, includes a promise of eventual universal suffrage.