[10][11] The House accepted the Senate version of the bill later that month, sending it to the desk of President Donald Trump,[12] who signed it one week later.

Co-sponsors for the Senate bill included Jim Risch (R-ID), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Angus King (I-ME), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Josh Hawley (R-MO).

[13] As he was signing the bill, Trump issued a signing statement hedging his support, saying that "certain provisions of the Act," which he did not specify, "would interfere with the exercise of the President’s constitutional authority to state the foreign policy of the United States," and that his administration would "treat each of the provisions of the act consistently with the president's constitutional authorities with respect to foreign relations.

"[46] Thousands of activists at the "Thanksgiving Rally" waved American flags and sang The Star-Spangled Banner, the U.S. national anthem, expressing gratitude to the United States, Congress and President Trump for passing the law.

But it does mean we should understand the law not as a grant of authority to the president, but as an effort to ensure the executive branch exercises all of its economic sanctioning powers to support the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement.

Cheung noted that despite "vocal backing from some Hong Kongers, and widespread support within Congress, the bill was not nearly as popular with longtime China hands in the United States.

[52] William Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong said that while Trump was unlikely to impose sanctions because of his interest in negotiating a U.S.-China trade deal, the protesters had "won a very important moral victory" given the law's near-unanimous passage through Congress.

"[55][1] An analyst with the Eurasia Group[56] and academic at Peking University[54] both opined that the passage of the act did not affect the extant and concurrent negotiations between the United States and People's Republic of China to resolve their trade war.

"[57] The managing director of a Hong Kong pro-democracy group said through a statement sent to Newsweek that the foreign ministry's response showed that the PRC was "sensitive and susceptible to international pressure.

[61][62] Experts said that Beijing's desire to prioritize a resolution to its trade war with the United States limited the retaliatory measures that it could (and eventually did) undertake.

[65][66] On December 2, 2019, the Chinese government retaliated against the U.S. for the passage of the HKHRDA by suspending visits of U.S. naval vessels and U.S. military aircraft to Hong Kong and by sanctioning several U.S.-based NGOs (including the National Endowment for Democracy, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the International Republican Institute), whom the Chinese government allege orchestrated the Hong Kong protests.

[63][67] A U.S. State Department official said that "false accusations of foreign interference" against U.S.-based NGOs were "intended to distract from the legitimate concerns of Hongkongers.

[34] In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) described the HKHRDA as a reaffirmation of "America's commitment to democracy and human rights and the rule of law in the face of Beijing's crackdown.

"[71] House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) and ranking member Michael McCaul (R-TX) both issued statements strongly supporting the act,[72][71] as did Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch (R-ID)[73] and ranking member Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

[74] Representative Chris Smith, one of the initial sponsors of the House bill, dismissed as "cowardly propaganda" the suggestion that passage of the act would bolster the Chinese government's efforts to depict the Hong Kong protests as "rioting" directed by the West.

L. 116–77 (text) (PDF), passed by Congress at the same time as the HKHRDA, banned the export of certain types of crowd control munitions—specifically, "tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, foam rounds, bean bag rounds, pepper balls, water cannons, handcuffs, shackles, stun guns, and tasers"—from the U.S. to the Hong Kong Police Force and Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force.