The United States announced sanctions on Monday against Hong Kong’s police chief, justice secretary, and other officials over human rights violations following China’s crackdown on the financial hub.
The sanctions on Police Commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee and the others will effectively block any interests they hold in the United States and generally criminalize financial transactions with them under US law.
The sanctions mark a rare action invoking human rights by the administration of President Donald Trump, who has described China as an adversary but has shown no reluctance to ally with autocrats.
The sanctions “demonstrate the Trump administration’s commitment to hold to account those responsible for depriving people in Hong Kong of protected rights and freedoms or who commit acts of transnational repression on US soil or against US persons,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Other officials targeted in the latest sanctions include Paul Lam, the city’s secretary for justice.
In response, Hong Kong strongly condemned the sanctions as “an attempt to intimidate” officials safeguarding national security and defended its moves to target pro-democracy figures abroad.
The sanction list “clearly exposed the US’s barbarity under its hegemony, which is exactly the same as its recent tactics in bullying and coercing various countries and regions,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement.
The commissioner’s office of China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong also blasted the sanctions as “unreasonable” and said Beijing will take “effective measures for resolute retaliation.”
Hong Kong’s top official, Chief Executive John Lee, is already under US sanctions.
The officials were targeted in line with a US law that champions Hong Kong democracy.
– Visa curbs over Tibet –
The State Department also pointed to some of the officials’ roles in efforts to “intimidate, silence and harass 19 pro-democracy activists” who fled overseas, including one US citizen and four US residents.
Washington’s top diplomat has been outspoken on China’s human rights record since his time as a senator.
In a separate action on Monday, Rubio said he was imposing visa restrictions on unspecified Chinese officials in response to the denial of access to US diplomats, journalists, and others to Tibet.
Earlier, Rubio also imposed sanctions on officials in Thailand over their deportations back to China of members of the Uyghur minority.
Beijing promised a separate system to Hong Kong when Britain handed over the city in 1997.
China then cracked down hard against dissent, imposing a draconian national security law after massive and, at times, destructive protests in favor of democracy swept Hong Kong in 2019.
AFP
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