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WASHINGTON: The United States should target Hong Kong’s financial sector with tougher sanctions to deprive China of its “ATM” and force Beijing to come to the negotiating table over its crackdown on the Asian financial hub, a Former Hong Kong legislator.
Sixtus “Baggio” Leung said he hopes to meet with advisers to President-elect Joe Biden to urge him to increase pressure on China, which tightened its grip on the former British colony with the imposition of new national security laws in June.
“There is a stronger way to respond to China’s crackdown: Hong Kong’s financial system, which is one of China’s ATMs right now; if we can do something about it, it will be much more powerful,” he said in Washington. , after running away. to seek asylum in the United States last month.
After being disqualified from his position as an elected legislator in 2016, Leung, 34, was sentenced to four weeks in jail and served his sentence in September.
Leung suggested that steps should be taken to prevent Chinese banks from using SWIFT, a network used by banks globally to conduct financial transactions, and also target the pegging of the Hong Kong dollar to the US currency “to try to force China to return to the negotiating table. ” .
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In October, the US State Department warned international financial institutions doing business with people held responsible for China’s crackdown in Hong Kong that they could soon face tough sanctions.
China, which promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy under its handover deal with Britain in 1997, denies restricting rights and freedoms in the city and has condemned the US sanctions as interference in China’s internal affairs. .
DETERIORATION OF THE SITUATION
Hong Kong democracy activists say conditions have deteriorated since China imposed security laws in June. Leung’s comments run the risk of not complying with the new laws, which result in anything that Beijing considers subversion, secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces to be punished with up to life in prison.
Earlier this week, Hong Kong police arrested eight more activists for an anti-government protest in July.
READ: UK ‘deeply concerned’ after Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai indicted under national security law
“Every day when we wake up, when we look at the mobile (phone) screen, the first thing that comes up is: Who among our friends are being arrested, who among our friends is being sentenced to prison,” Leung said.
China and Hong Kong are expected to be among Biden’s thorniest challenges, with relations between Washington and Beijing at the lowest point in decades.
On Tuesday, his incoming national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said he was “deeply concerned” about Hong Kong. Biden’s transition team declined to comment, but referred Reuters to Sullivan’s tweet.
Washington has already unleashed a series of sanctions on senior Hong Kong and Chinese officials deemed responsible for Beijing’s crackdown on the territory. But Leung says more is needed to prevent China from destroying its democracy.
“I don’t see the situation changing if we just sit here and do nothing,” he said.
