By David Brunnstrom and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The USA stated on Friday it would impose new visa restrictions on various Hong Kong officers over the crackdown on rights and freedoms within the Chinese language-ruled territory.
A press release from Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that previously yr, China continued to take actions towards Hong Kong’s promised excessive diploma of autonomy, democratic establishments, and rights and freedoms, together with with the current enactment of a brand new nationwide safety regulation generally known as Article 23.
“In response, the Division of State is asserting that it’s taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on a number of Hong Kong officers chargeable for the intensifying crackdown on rights and freedoms,” Blinken stated.
The assertion didn’t determine the officers who can be focused.
In November, Hong Kong condemned a U.S. invoice calling for sanctions towards 49 Hong Kong officers, judges and prosecutors concerned in nationwide safety instances, saying U.S. legislators had been grand-standing and attempting to intimidate town.
Officers named in that Hong Kong Sanctions Act included Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, Police chief Raymond Siu and judges Andrew Cheung, Andrew Chan, Johnny Chan, Alex Lee, Esther Toh and Amanda Woodcock.
The USA has imposed visa restrictions and different sanctions previously on Hong Kong officers blamed for undermining freedoms and introduced an finish to the particular financial remedy the territory lengthy loved underneath U.S. regulation.
It has additionally warned that international monetary establishments that conduct enterprise with them can be topic to sanctions.
The U.S. Hong Kong Coverage Act requires the State Division to report annually to Congress on circumstances in Hong Kong.
“This yr, I’ve once more licensed that Hong Kong doesn’t warrant remedy underneath U.S. legal guidelines in the identical method because the legal guidelines had been utilized to Hong Kong earlier than July 1, 1997,” Blinken stated, referring to when Hong Kong was handed again to China by Britain.
“This yr’s report catalogs the intensifying repression and ongoing crackdown by PRC and Hong Kong authorities on civil society, media, and dissenting voices, together with via the issuance of bounties and arrest warrants for greater than a dozen pro-democracy activists residing exterior Hong Kong,” Blinken stated, referring to the Folks’s Republic of China.
The Commissioner’s Workplace of China’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs in Hong Kong stated the report and statements issued by Blinken “confused proper and unsuitable” and “stigmitised” Hong Kong’s nationwide safety regulation and town’s electoral system.
The menace to sanction Hong Kong officers “grossly interferes” in Hong Kong affairs and China’s inner affairs, a spokesperson stated in an announcement issued on Saturday.
“As an alternative of performing because the world’s policeman and issuing an annual ‘Hong Kong Coverage Act report’, america ought to take time to look at itself.”
Earlier on Friday, the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia stated it had closed its Hong Kong bureau, citing considerations over workers security after the enactment of the brand new nationwide safety regulation.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese language rule with the assure that its excessive diploma of autonomy and freedoms can be protected underneath a “one nation, two programs” components.
In recent times, many pro-democracy politicians and activists have been jailed or gone into exile, and liberal media shops and civil society teams have been shut down.
This month, in a joint assertion, 145 group and advocacy teams condemned the safety regulation and known as for sanctions on officers concerned in its passage, and a evaluate of the standing of Hong Kong’s Financial & Commerce Workplaces worldwide.
