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WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday (December 7) imposed new sanctions on Chinese officials over the Hong Kong crackdown and took a step to welcome residents of the city, as American leaders from across the political spectrum voiced his outrage against Beijing.
The administration of President Donald Trump has been using its final days to increase pressure on China, a rare point of unity with President-elect Joe Biden, who has signaled that he will maintain a hard line, if not always the same bellicose tone.
In its latest move, the Trump administration said it was freezing all American assets and banning travel to the United States of 14 vice chairs of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which spearheaded a strict new security law in Hong Kong.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was holding Beijing responsible for its “relentless attack on Hong Kong’s democratic processes.”
However, the Trump administration failed to punish the committee chairman, Li Zhanshu, sometimes described as President Xi Jinping’s right-hand man, who has forged an on-and-off friendship with Trump.
The United States has already imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam and has stated that it will no longer treat the financial center separate from China.
While Lam has tried to minimize the effect of the US moves, he acknowledged in a recent interview that he relies on “lots of cash” as he can no longer maintain a bank account due to pressure from the US Treasury Department. , which has a wide influence. on dollar-denominated transactions.
WELCOMING HONG KONG RESIDENTS
The House of Representatives voted unanimously on Monday to make it easier for Hong Kong residents to live in the United States, following similar steps from Great Britain and Canada.
Rep. Tom Malinowski, a member of Biden’s Democratic Party who spearheaded the Hong Kong bill, said welcoming people was more powerful than deciding to “impose some sanctions” on Chinese officials.
“The best way to win against a dictatorship is to confront the strength of our system against the weakness of theirs, to maintain the evident contrast between our free, open and self-confident democracy against the weakness of the oppressive, closed and fearful system that the Communist Party has imposed on the Chinese people, even now in Hong Kong, “Malinwowski said in the House.
“It is actually much more than a humanitarian gesture, it is one of the best ways to dissuade China from crushing Hong Kong,” Malinowski said.
Supporters display posters for Hong Kong pro-democracy activists Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam and Joshua Wong outside a courtroom on December 2, 2020 after the three were jailed. (Photo: AFP / Peter Parks)
Hong Kong residents would enjoy so-called Temporary Protected Status for five years, joining citizens of conflict-ridden states like Syria who cannot be deported and will have the right to work in the United States.
The measure still needs Senate approval, but has cross-party support, unlike an earlier offer by Democrats to extend the status to Venezuelans, which was effectively blocked by Trump’s Republicans.
The Trump administration has described decades of efforts to get China involved as failure, and US intelligence chief John Ratcliffe last week called Beijing “the greatest threat to democracy in the world.”
In other moves last week, Pompeo ended five Beijing-funded exchange programs, calling them propaganda tools, and said the State Department would limit the validity of visas for any Chinese Communist Party member and their family members, a decision. that could affect hundreds. of millions of people.
Curb dissent
The Chinese parliament pushed through the new security law in June despite international warnings that it was violating a promise to allow a separate system in Hong Kong before Britain surrendered its colony in 1997.
Through the law, China has largely succeeded in quelling the protests that rocked Hong Kong last year.
Young Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong (center) and Ivan Lam (left) board a police van on December 2, 2020, before going to court to be sentenced for a protest. (Photo: AFP / Anthony Wallace)
On Monday, police cited the law to make arrests during a small unofficial graduation rally last month at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where masked students waved banners and chanted slogans that included “Free Hong Kong, revolution of our times.” .
Li Kwai-wah, a senior official in Hong Kong’s new national security unit, told reporters that three had been arrested for illegal assembly and “inciting secession,” a crime under the law.
Five others were also arrested for illegal assembly, added Li, who is among a group of senior Hong Kong and Chinese officials who were previously sanctioned by the United States.
Also in November, pro-democracy lawmakers resigned en masse from the Hong Kong Legislative Council following the disqualification of four of their colleagues.
