China complained to the United States ambassador that the recent actions of the Trump administration in Hong Kong and trade are an “intimidation” tactic that will face a “counterattack,” as Secretary of State Pompeo predicts that Beijing will pay. “absolutely” a price for the spread of the coronavirus.
Deputy Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang summoned US Ambassador Terry Branstad to Beijing on Wednesday to criticize President Trump’s signing of the Hong Kong Autonomous Law that revokes his special business status.
“I want to warn the United States severely that any intimidation and injustice imposed on China by the United States will face a determined counterattack by China, and the United States’ attempt to obstruct China’s development is doomed to failure,” he said, according to the media. state.
Trump signed the act Tuesday at the White House in retaliation for the imposition of a draconian national security law in Hong Kong with the intention of quelling protests in favor of democracy and ending dissent.
It authorizes sanctions against Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for the crackdown and ends Hong Kong’s special trade status, which means it will be treated the same as mainland China and face the same tariffs that the administration imposed on Chinese products for billions of dollars worth.
Trump also said he has no interest in meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping again on trade issues because of the way Beijing handled the coronavirus pandemic.
“We did a great commercial deal, but as soon as the deal was made, the ink wasn’t even dry and they hit us with the plague. So now I’m not interested in talking to China about another deal, “Trump told CBS News in an interview Tuesday.
“I am interested in doing other things with China,” he said.
Branstad, in a statement released Thursday by the United States Embassy, said he expressed “deep concerns of the United States about China’s decisions to erode Hong Kong’s fundamental freedoms and explain the details” of the president’s executive order on Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong no longer guarantees treatment under United States law in the same way that United States laws applied to Hong Kong prior to July 1, 1997,” Branstad said in the statement, referring to when Gran Britain returned Hong Kong to China.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed Trump’s sentiments about China’s handling of the pandemic, saying that Beijing will “absolutely” pay a price for the spread of the coronavirus.
“I think the world will absolutely pay them a price,” Pompeo said in an interview with The Hill on Wednesday. “You can see, every place I go, every foreign minister I speak to, they recognize what China has done to the world.”
The Trump administration criticized China for minimizing the severity of the virus after it was first reported in Wuhan, China in late December.
“I am very confident that the world will see China differently and will engage with them in fundamentally different terms than they did before this catastrophic disaster,” Pompeo said.
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