Former Chief Executive of Hong Kong Leung Chun-ying said Washington is targeting China and sees Hong Kong as an easy target. 

Leung made the remarks while talking to CGTN, emphasizing that the motive behind the bill has nothing to do with Hong Kong, democracy, human rights and freedoms. 

"Look at other countries in the region, then many countries in Asia that are not as democratic as we are, they don't protect human rights, they don't have the good record for the freedoms," Leung asked: why doesn't the U.S. pass a similar bill to sanction these countries?  "Because these countries are not part of China," Leung said.

Hong Kong is part of China, then Hong Kong has become a soft target for them, he added.

When asked to evaluate U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comment that China's promise of full autonomy for Hong Kong has been utterly broken, Leung denounced her words, saying China didn't promise the city a full autonomy but a high degree of autonomy, which has been well exercised.

What Pelosi said was just for making sure the bills were passed and there were a lot of distortion and misrepresentation in the whole process, he added. 

On the Hong Kong police operation, Leung expanded on why they use a large amount of tear gases — for crowd-control and to enlarge the space between police and rioters. So that there's minimum body contact and no one gets hurt, he added.

Questioning what U.S. police, national guards and the army  would have done if similar riots happened in American cities, Leung believes they would have fired live rounds. 

"Look at what happened in Los Angeles," he said.