Hong Kong (CNN) Chinese officials and state media have reacted with fury to the almost-unanimous passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Though the bill has yet to go before US President Donald Trump for consideration, China wasted little time in condemning the vote, with the state-owned People's Daily describing it as "a piece of waste paper," and a "serious provocation against the entire Chinese people" in an editorial published Thursday.

"If the US side goes its own way, China will take effective measures to resolutely counteract it, and all consequences must be fully borne by the US," the editorial said.

The potential showdown risks undermining ongoing trade talks between Washington and Beijing during a critical juncture. Trump, who has yet to confirm whether he will sign the act, has so far appeared reticent to challenge China on the issue of Hong Kong, even promising Chinese President Xi Jinping in October that the US would remain silent on the city's ongoing pro-democracy protests while trade talks continued.

The US government treats semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which has its own legal and political systems, differently from the Chinese mainland when it comes to trade and export controls. Should it become law, the Hong Kong Act would require the US government to annually confirm that those freedoms were being maintained by Beijing -- failure to do so could result in Washington withdrawing the city's special trading status, a massive blow to the Hong Kong economy.

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