In recent years, Hong Kong police have purchased more aggressive crowd control equipment from foreign countries. The US is one of the major suppliers for items including pepperball guns, bean bag rounds, rubber rounds and pepper spray. These weapons are repeatedly misused to suppress protestors and even journalists in HK's recent anti-extradition protests, such as shooting protestors' heads, using pepper spray at close range, and unleashing tear gas directly at unarmed protestors. Such violations of human rights should be condemned and sanctioned, otherwise, it would only encourage further abuse of excessive force.
We, therefore, strongly urge the US government to suspend any export application of crowd control equipment to Hong Kong to prevent further brutality against Hong Kongers.