US imposes sanctions on four Chinese officials over Hong Kong crackdown
10 November, 2020
AMERICA on Monday (Nov 10) imposed sanctions on four more Chinese officials in Hong Kong's governing and security establishment over their alleged role in crushing dissent in the former British colony.
The US Treasury and State Department identified the four as Deng Zhonghua, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office; Edwina Lau, deputy commissioner of police in Hong Kong, and Li Jiangzhou and Li Kwai-wah, two officials at the newly established national security office in Hong Kong.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions were for their role in implementing Hong Kong's new national security law. He said they might be barred from travelling to america, and any US-related assets will be blocked.
"These actions underscore US resolve to carry accountable key figures that are actively eviscerating the freedoms of the persons of Hong Kong and undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy," he said in a statement.
None of the four could be reached immediately for comment.
Hong Kong Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said the sanctions were "absolutely unacceptable, a blatant - and I'd utilize the word 'barbaric' - interference."
"We will not be intimidated," Cheung told reporters, speaking at a normal news conference held on Tuesday morning Hong Kong time.
Washington has called China's enactment of a new national security law in Hong Kong this season an unacceptable breach of China's "one country, two systems" commitment from what was once China's freest city.
The designations will be the first sanctions imposed on China since Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in last week's US election. Biden is due to take office on Jan 20. Trump so far has refused to concede defeat.
In actions heralding a far more authoritarian era for Hong Kong, China opened a fresh national security office in July, weekly after imposing the new national security legislation to punish what it called crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up alive in prison.
Last month, the US STATE DEPT. warned international finance institutions employing individuals deemed accountable for China's crackdown in Hong Kong that they could soon face tough sanctions.
Washington put sanctions on Carrie Lam, the territory's current and former police chiefs and other top officials in August for what it said was their role in curtailing freedoms in a crackdown on the territory's pro-democracy movement.
Relations between the USA and China, the world's two biggest economies, plunged to the cheapest point in decades in the run-up to last week's US election. The two sides are in odds on a broad range of issues including China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its own treatment of Hong Kong.
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