TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The U.S. State Department added two dozen Chinese and Hong Kong officials to its list of people to be sanctioned under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act on Wednesday (March 17).
While in Tokyo on the first leg of his four-day tour of Asian allies, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a list of 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials determined to be complicit in the unraveling of the large degree of autonomy China guaranteed to Hong Kong for 50 years after the city's 1997 handover. The Hong Kong Autonomy Act, passed by Congress last July, requires the secretary of state to submit an annual report naming "foreign individuals and entities that materially contributed to China's failure to comply with the [Sino-British] Joint Declaration or Basic Law."
Blinken said the update highlighted the U.S.' concern about the major changes to Hong Kong's election system approved by China's rubber-stamp legislature the National People's Congress (NPC) on March 11.
The State Department list now includes 14 vice chairs of the National People's Congress Standing Committee as well as high-ranking officials of China's United Front Work Department, the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Hong Kong's Office for Safeguarding National Security, and the Hong Kong Police Force's National Security Division. The 24 additions join Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (
In addition to denying visas to and freezing the assets of those targeted, the Hong Kong Autonomy Act allows for sanctions against financial institutions that "knowingly conducted a significant transaction" with them.
Beijing's overhaul to Hong Kong's electoral system will see 300 Chinese Communist Party officials join Hong Kong's committee to choose the next chief executive in 2022. It will also establish a group to vet candidates for that committee and the Legislative Council based on their "patriotism."
