The US is to enact new visa restrictions upon multiple Hong Kong officials in light of what it deems a crackdown on rights and freedoms.
A Friday statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that – over the past year – Beijing has “continued to take actions against Hong Kong’s promised high degree of autonomy, democratic institutions, and rights and freedoms.”
It said the recently-enacted homegrown security law, Article 23, has provisions that “both be used to eliminate dissent inside Hong Kong and applied outside of its borders as part of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] ongoing campaign of transnational repression.”
Separate to the 2020 Beijing-enacted security law, the homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage. It allows for pre-charge detention of to up to 16 days, and suspects’ access to lawyers may be restricted, with penalties involving up to life in prison. Article 23 was shelved in 2003 amid mass protests, remaining taboo for years. But, on March 23, 2024, it was enacted having been fast-tracked and unanimously approved at the city’s opposition-free legislature.
The law has been criticised by rights NGOs, Western states and the UN as vague, broad and “regressive.” Authorities, however, cited perceived foreign interference and a constitutional duty to “close loopholes” after the 2019 protests and unrest.
Hong Kong officials not yet named
“[T]he Department of State is announcing that it is taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on multiple Hong Kong officials responsible for the intensifying crackdown on rights and freedoms…” the statement said, without naming any of the targeted officials.
In response, a statement issued by the Hong Kong government on Saturday said it “strongly condemns and rejects the wanton slander about and political attacks” from the US.
“The so-called ‘sanctions’ arbitrarily imposed by the US as mentioned in the so-called report, and the so-called ‘visa restrictions’ claimed to be imposed in the relevant statement, smack of despicable political manipulation to intimidate the HKSAR officials safeguarding national security,” a government spokesperson said.
Last November, Hong Kong criticised a US bill urging sanctions against 49 local officials, judges and prosecutors. It has also condemned moves to shutter its trade offices in the US.
Washington’s Hong Kong Sanctions Act previously named police chief Raymond Siu, justice chief Paul Lam, as well as judges Andrew Cheung, Andrew Chan, Johnny Chan, Alex Lee, Esther Toh and Amanda Woodcock.
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