Sec. 2. Findings and statement of policy
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Congress finds the following: During the 2019 anti-extradition bill and pro-democracy protests, the Hong Kong Police Force used non-lethal crowd control articles such as water cannon trucks, tear gas, rubber bullets, sponge grenades, beanbag rounds, batons, pepper spray, pepper balls, and projectile launchers. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with human rights organizations, have called for an investigation of the use of crowd control tactics used in Hong Kong which fall short of international standards, including the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms for Law Enforcement Officials.
United States companies received export licenses to sell the Hong Kong Police Force munitions and non-lethal crowd control defense articles and services and at least some of those articles were used by the police unnecessarily and disproportionately during largely peaceful demonstrations. The Government of the United Kingdom suspended export licenses for the sale of tear gas and other non-lethal crowd control equipment to Hong Kong until concerns about human rights abuses are addressed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on European governments and the international community to impose export-control mechanisms to deny the Hong Kong and Chinese governments access to technologies used to violate basic rights. Hong Kong citizens and the international community have called for changes to the Hong Kong Police’s crowd control tactics and these requests have gone unheeded by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. It is the policy of the United States— to restrict the export of security assistance and crime control and detection instruments and equipment to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights as required by section 502B(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 ( 22 U.S.C. 2304(a) ); and to use export controls on crime control and detection instruments and equipment to deter the development of a consistent pattern of human rights abuses, distance the United States from such abuses, and avoid contributing to civil disorder in a country or region in accordance with section 742.7(b) of part 774 of subtitle B of title 15, Code of Federal Regulations.
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Sec. 2
Findings and statement of policy
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