Photo: Xinhua

The US Senate passed the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 on Tuesday despite stern representations and strong opposition from China. The act, a gross intervention in China's internal affairs, was criticized as undemocratic and ridiculous by foreign netizens on Twitter.

"Just a reminder that the Hong Kong human rights and democracy act has little to do with human rights and democracy", said Tom Fowdy, an analyst from the University of Oxford. “The legal text of the bill is all about subjugating the city to America's own foreign policy goals and interests and a threat to its special status.”

For Fowdy, the US Congress sees the bill as a "Trojan horse for American geopolitics."

Section 5 of the so called Hong Kong Act states the territory is obliged to anything the United States deems a "national security threat". Given how broad, unspecified and easily used that definition tends to be, that truly demonstrates how opportunistic the act really is, said Fowdy. 

The remarks were echoed by Alejandro Delgado, who questioned the democratic nature of the bill. 

The bill will head to the White House for US President Donald Trump's signature. "Will Trump veto it? Anyone reading the fine print knows it will hurt Hong Kong instead of help", netizen @subzero810 said. Once signed into law, the bill - "pro-terrorism" described by netizen Wayne Hughes Beckett - will ban HK police from arresting the rioters and stopping violence, which is considered absurd as HK belongs to China and its affairs are China's internal affairs and shall definitely be handled within the framework of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Just as what @Sean7318837 has said: "USA act is not valid in CHINA HK plz remind that!"

The sanctions on China mentioned in the bill were the reason why US GOP congressman Thomas Massie vetoed the bill. "I will never vote for the sanctions. This is fake", said Massie in a television interview on Fox Business. "This is Congress acting that they want to do something, but they are not really going to do anything".

"In turn, it will send a message to the American people that they can resist the government as Hong Kong people do, even arson, beating, detention, murder, which can be sympathized with and approved by other countries", @DevilOld2019 commented.