The United States announced on Friday that it was โtaking stepsโ to put fresh visa curbs on Hong Kong officials responsible for cracking down on rights in the Chinese city, days after a new national security law came into force.
In a statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that over the past year, Beijing has โcontinued to take actions against Hong Kongโs promised high degree of autonomy, democratic institutions, and rights and freedoms.โ
This crackdown, he said, included the recent passage of โArticle 23,โ a national security law targeting treason, insurrection, espionage and theft of state secrets, among other crimes.
In response to โintensifying repressionโ and restrictions on โcivil society, media, and dissenting voices,โ the State Department โis taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on multiple Hong Kong officials,โ the statement added.
Blinken did not elaborate on the visa measures to be taken, nor the officials to be targeted.
His announcement comes after Washingtonโs annual review of Hong Kongโs autonomy, a status promised by Beijing when Britain handed over the city in 1997.
โThis year, I have again certified that Hong Kong does not warrant treatment under U.S. laws in the same manner as the laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1, 1997,โ Blinken said.
Washington has previously imposed visa restrictions and sanctions on Hong Kong officials it accuses of eroding the rights and freedoms that differentiate the city from the rest of China.
In 2020, the United States also revoked the financial hubโs special trade status in response to the quashing of 2019โs large, and at times violent, pro-democracy protests.
Chinaโs foreign ministry representative in Hong Kong โstrongly condemnedโ Washingtonโs latest move as smearing the new security law and interfering in Chinaโs internal affairs.
The annual review of Hong Kongโs autonomy was โa farce that nobody was buyingโฆ and should be sent to historyโs trash heap,โ said a spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2020, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong to quell the protests.
Article 23, which became effective last week, is an additional, homegrown national security law that officials said was needed to plug security loopholes.
Separately on Friday, the US government-funded news service Radio Free Asia said that it had closed its Hong Kong office after the enactment of the new law, citing concerns for the safety of its staff.
AFP