U.S. passes Hong Kong rights bill

China on Wednesday threatened “strong countermeasures” after the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill the day before to protect human rights in Hong Kong. The bill will now go to the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed similar legislation last month. If approved, the measure will impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for rights abuses and require an annual review of the semi-autonomous territory’s trade status with the United States.

Has anything changed in Hong Kong? By Wednesday, fewer than 100 protesters remained holed up inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as police maintained a security cordon around the campus. Some calm returned to the city as schools reopened, but transit disruptions continued. Simon Cheng, a former British Consulate worker in Hong Kong, told the BBC in an interview that Chinese agents tortured him as a “British spy” during a 15-day detention on the mainland. Cheng said the national security police “clearly stated” they detained multiple Hong Kong protesters, confirming the demonstrators’ fears over China’s influence in the territory.

Dig deeper: Read Cheng’s first-person account of his detention, torture, and release.