Republican Senator McConnell was re-elected for a seventh term and urged the U.S. to pay attention to Hong Kong.

The U.S. presidential election coincided with the re-election of the Senate and House of Representatives, with senior Republican Senator and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell being re-elected for the seventh time in Kentucky, the longest-serving Republican Senator in history.

McConnell, 78, is seen as an important supporter of Trump in the Senate, having supported him on issues such as tax reform and the appointment of Barrett to the Supreme Court. In recent years, he has also urged Washington to pay close attention to the state of democracy in Hong Kong on Hong Kong issues.

After winning the election, McConnell said, “Now is the time to defend what we inherited, and then pass it on and make it stronger. He added that the U.S. faces challenges and has real adversaries, but that its citizens are by no means the enemy.

Speaking about the situation in Hong Kong last year, McConnell urged Trump to support the Hong Kong protesters, saying that the message that the United States is with the brave people of Hong Kong has to come from Trump himself, and that he hopes Trump will focus on trade negotiations with China while emphasizing the preservation of Hong Kong’s autonomy. McConnell also said that the U.S. could invoke the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act to sanction serious human rights abusers.

In 1992, he helped draft the U.S.-Hong Kong Policy Act, which made the U.S. treat Hong Kong differently from China in areas such as finance and culture by recognizing Hong Kong as a separate customs territory, but only if China fulfilled its commitment in the Sino-British Joint Declaration to give Hong Kong a “high degree of autonomy.

The Hong Kong Policy Act of the time also stated that, under the framework of one country, two systems, the United States supported human rights, democracy and autonomy for Hong Kong, and protected Hong Kong’s way of life and the ability of U.S. investors to do business in Hong Kong as an international financial center and free port.

On China, McConnell said in a conversation with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year that the spread of free speech and democratic elections to China was Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s “worst nightmare.