The Hong Kong government has expressed its “greatest anger” at a US decision to sanction six city officials and China, calling the move “insane, shameless and contemptible”.
The US is trying to ‘intervene’ in the internal affairs of China and Hong Kong, and ‘hinder’ their efforts to protect national security, the city’s government said in a statement Saturday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday that the US will sanction officials as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order on Hong Kong normalization.
The move is the latest in a series of measures that the White House has taken to punish China, after Beijing introduced national security laws in Hong Kong last year. The law left doubt on whether the former colony could still have the ‘high degree of autonomy’ promised before the British returned it to China in 1997. The US has begun revoking the ‘special status’ the city has had and also imposing sanctions on officials including CEO Carrie Lam.
“The US actions show double standards and hypocrisy, let alone violate international laws and basic norms of international relations,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement. The excuse the US used to punish the officials was’ lame ‘and’ could hardly stand to challenge, ”it added.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong condemned the sanctions in a Saturday said some Western politicians portray a false image and discredit those suspected of violating national security law as ‘pro-democracy politicians and activists’.
(Updates with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs comment in last paragraph)