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The US State Department told international financial institutions that they could face sanctions for doing business with people involved in China’s crackdown on Hong Kong protesters.
The US State Department formally warned international financial institutions doing business with people held responsible for China’s crackdown in Hong Kong on Wednesday that they could soon face sanctions.
In a report to Congress seen by Reuters, the State Department named 10 people, all of whom have already been sanctioned, including Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam, and said that within 60 days it would identify the financial institutions conducting significant transactions with them.
It was the latest US response to China’s actions in Hong Kong, including the enactment of a new national security law this year, which Washington called an unacceptable violation of China’s “one country, two systems” commitments to the former British colony.
The State Department report, required by Hong Kong’s Home Rule Act, comes at a time when relations between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, have plummeted to the lowest point in decades in the run up to US President Donald Trump’s November. 3 candidacy for reelection.
In August, Washington imposed sanctions on Lam and other top political and security officials for what Washington says is their role in restricting political freedoms in a crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in the territory.
Wednesday’s State Department report did not add new people to the list or name banks or other financial institutions that may be at risk of sanctions.
The US Hong Kong Home Rule Act that Trump signed into law on July 14 required the State Department to list those held responsible for the Communist-ruled China failing to fulfill its obligations to Hong Kong in within 90 days, which makes them liable for penalties.
It also requires a list of financial institutions that knowingly conduct significant financial transactions with such individuals 60 days after that.
It allows the President of the United States to impose sanctions on people as soon as they are named and calls for sanctions on financial institutions no later than one year after their name.
Leading politicians in the United States and the United Kingdom have criticized HSBC and Standard Chartered after the banks backed China’s national security law for the territory.
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