Its leadership, however, is not directly democratically elected - and Carrie Lam is seen as part of the pro-Beijing political establishment.

"This very vicious attack took place practically on the eve of the call for yet another massive protest in Hong Kong on Sunday".

Ms Lam dismissed the allegations, insisting her policy proposals about Hong Kong's housing crisis were in fact addressing pressing social concerns.

The House action "fully exposes the shocking hypocrisy of some in the USA on human rights and democracy and their malicious intention to undermine Hong Kong's prosperity and stability to contain China's development", Geng said.

It came the day after Ms Lam was forced to abandon an annual policy address in the chamber, later delivering it on television. After 30 minutes of the one hour event, 5,700 "angry" emojis had been posted compared with 1,300 "likes".

The address is an annual speech at the opening of the city's legislature where the pro-Beijing leader lays out policies and bills for the year ahead.

The United States House of Representatives has unanimously passed three pieces of legislation supporting the pro-democracy protests that have engulfed Hong Kong for more than four months.

On Thursday, the lawmakers continued their calls for Lam to step down, and to respond to demands for an investigation into allegations of excessive force by police against protesters.

"It is not hard to link this incident to a spreading political terror in order to threaten and inhibit the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights", the CHRF said, adding Sham was conscious as he was taken to hospital. Many Republican and Democratic members of Congress say they view the company as a security threat.

After pounding Sham to the pavement on Arran Street in the Kowloon Peninsula district, the attackers fled the scene by auto.

"Jimmy Sham.is now stable and taking rest in hospital", it said in a later tweet, as photos of Sham lying on the ground near a parked white auto, covered in blood, began to circulate on social media.

"Jimmy Sham was left bleeding on the street and has been hospitalised with head injuries". He said the real problem is with the system and the regime and that "Only an independent commission of inquiry can restore the truth, and only with this truth can the system be re-established!"

Asked if the motive behind the attack was related to the ongoing protests, Ng said police are not ruling out any possibility.

To tackle the online bullying of police officers, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has followed up, and the HKSAR government will also examine existing laws so as to better cope with large-scale online doxxing and bullying, Lam said.

Police and protesters, some dressed in black ninja-style outfits, have fought running street battles for weeks, with police firing tear gas, rubber bullets and occasionally live rounds against brick and petrol-bomb throwing activists.

Authorities have arrested more than 2,300 people since June when the unrest escalated, scores of them teenagers, some as young as 12 and the oldest 83.

Pro-Beijing legislator Regina Ip said the American politicians were seeking to "interfere mostly in the domestic affairs of Hong Kong and to promote the political interests of their proxies in Hong Kong".

Hardcore protesters have torched the city's metro and Chinese banks and scores of shops they believe are linked to mainland China. The Asian financial hub is facing its first recession in a decade due to the unrest.