The US imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s departing police chief and five other officials on Monday, saying they had undermined the semi-autonomous city’s “protected rights and freedoms”.
The sanctions against Hong Kong Police Commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee and other high-ranking officials announced on Monday will freeze any assets they have in the US and restrict any financial transactions with them under US law. The sanctions were imposed on Chiu a day before he retires on Tuesday.
Citing an executive order signed by President Donald Trump during his first term, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the move demonstrated “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”.
Rubio also referred to the most recent edition of the department’s Hong Kong Policy Report, released along with the sanctions announcement, saying that Trump remained committed to taking action in response to what his administration sees as an erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Decades ago, Beijing pledged to keep the city’s governance largely under local control for 50 years after its sovereignty reverted to mainland China from Britain on July 1, 1997.
But after the Chinese government imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 following more than a year of protests over a proposed extradition agreement with the mainland, Washington, along with many dissidents and other critics, considered the law – as well as the subsequent crackdown on local protesters – to break that pledge.
The 2020 policy report determined that Hong Kong was no longer sufficiently autonomous.
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