HONG KONG (AP) – US sanctions 24 additional Chinese and Hong Kong officials for Beijing’s continued crackdown on political freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, just before the Biden administration’s first face-to-face talks with China .
The move reflects Washington’s “deep concern” over the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy following changes to its electoral system approved by China’s ceremonial legislature last week, Secretary of State Antony said Wednesday Blinken.
Foreign financial institutions dealing with the 24 officials would be subject to U.S. sanctions, the State Department said.
The planned changes in Hong Kong election law, they give a pro-Beijing committee the power to appoint more Hong Kong lawmakers. The decision will reduce the proportion of those directly elected and ensure that only those determined to be truly loyal to Beijing can be elected to office, effectively excluding opposition figures from the political process.
The US announcement was made during a visit by Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Japan and South Korea, both wary of China’s growing economic, military and political weight.
The imposition of new sanctions “fully exposes the sinister intention of the US side to interfere in China’s internal affairs, disrupt Hong Kong and hinder China’s stability and development,” he told reporters on Wednesday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
“China will take the appropriate strong measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty, security and development interests,” Zhao said.
While in Tokyo, the Blinken and Austin made a joint statement with Japanese counterparts expressing concern over Beijing’s human rights violations in the western Xinjiang region against ethnic minorities and China’s determination to alter the status of a group of uninhabited islands administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing. The two arrived in Seoul on Wednesday to talk.
On Thursday, Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan are scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Communist Party of China Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Anchorage , Alaska.
The White House has set low expectations for the meeting. A senior official, who informed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the two sides would not issue a joint statement and no important announcements were expected.
The United States has said Thursday’s meeting will be an initial opportunity to address intense disagreements over trade and human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, as well as the coronavirus pandemic. .
While President Joe Biden has tried to lighten the harsh tone his predecessor took with China, his administration seems committed to taking a hard line on these issues.
China has rejected all criticism of its policies towards Hong Kong, accusing foreign governments of interfering and saying the policy needed to be tightened after months of 2019 anti-government protests.
Last June, Beijing imposed a powerful national security law on the city, and Hong Kong authorities have arrested most prominent pro-democracy supporters and outspoken critics. Many others have fled abroad and renewed their calls this week for members of the Hong Kong diaspora to continue the fight for the freedoms promised in the city after the end of 1997 of British colonial rule.
Among those included in the sanctions they are Wang Chen, an elite member of the 25-member Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, and Tam Yiu-chung, the Hong Kong delegate to the standing committee of the Chinese parliament, which drafted the national security law.
Several officers from the Hong Kong National Security Division were also sanctioned, including Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent, and Edwina Lau, deputy commissioner of the Hong Kong police and head of the division.
As of last October, the U.S. had already sanctioned ten officials, including Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, and Hong Kong and Macao Deputy Director of Affairs Zhang Xiaoming. Sanctions ban travel to the United States and block dealings with U.S. financial institutions.
Lam said in a television interview in November last year that the sanctions meant she received her salary in cash and had “piles of cash” at home because she was cut off from banking services in Hong Kong.
Chinese officials have rejected the impact of the sanctions, and some call their designation a point of pride in what they consider an attempt to undermine Chinese control in Hong Kong and its rise as a competitor in the U.S.
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Aamer Madhani, a writer for the Associated Press in Washington, contributed to the report.