CHINA-HONGKONG: US STATE DEPARTMENT SANCTIONS AN ADDITIONAL 24 CHINESE AND HONGKONG OFFICIALS AND CHINA REACTS

In a statement on March 17, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken disclosed that the US State Department has identified 24 PRC and Hong Kong officials, including 14 Vice-Chairmen of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee and officials in the Hong Kong Police Force’s National Security Division, the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, and the Office for Safeguarding National Security, whose actions have reduced Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.  Foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct significant transactions with the individuals listed in the report are now subject to sanctions. Among those sanctioned are Wang Chen, Politburo member and Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Tam Yiu-chung, member of the NPC Standing Committee from the Hong Kong delegation,  Li Kwai-wah, a Senior Superintendent with the Hongkong Police National Security Division and Edwina Lau, Deputy Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force and the Head of the Hongkong Police National Security Division. Global Times (March. 18) quoted Yang Xiyu, a former Chinese diplomat and senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, as telling that "even if 1,400 officials get sanctioned by the US, China will unswervingly push forward its reform and governance in Hong Kong. Because Hong Kong is under China's sovereignty, there is nothing that the US can do to stop China from governing its own city."

An editorial in the CCP's official newspaper People's Daily on March 18, titled “Advice to the U.S. to put away the tricks of political intimidation” hit back at the US sanctions. It called the sanctions "bullying and interventionist behavior on issues related to Hong Kong" and "a serious violation of international law and basic norms of international relations. It represents a serious interference in China’s internal affairs and a full exposure of its sinister intentions to disrupt Hong Kong and obstruct China’s stability and development, which is disgraceful.” The editorial said “The U.S. side is trying to resort to political intimidation by wielding the baton of sanctions, but this nasty behavior cannot stop the general trend of Hong Kong to move from chaos to order". It called this "a vain attempt to create chaos in Hong Kong and undermine its prosperity and stability, but the facts prove that the so-called declaration of sanctions is just a piece of scrap paper". It asserted that “Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong, and how the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is designed and improved is purely China’s internal affair" and that since China enacted and implemented the Hong Kong national security law, "the international community has become more optimistic about the prospects of Hong Kong’s prosperous and stable development, and the confidence of foreign investors in Hong Kong has increased.”







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