Exclusive | National security law: China won’t be ‘threatened’ but is braced for US financial sanctions, Beijing official says
- Hong Kong adopted the national security law on Tuesday which criminalises behaviour and acts under the four categories of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with a foreign power
- US lawmakers on Thursday passed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act that requires sanctions against individuals and banks over the erosion of the city’s autonomy
China is braced for possible financial sanctions from the United States over the Hong Kong national security law, but still hopes to ease tensions with Washington, according to a source close to China’s financial authority.
“The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong financial authorities certainly have prearranged plans. We won’t allow others to threaten or make trouble freely,” the source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the topic, told the South China Morning Post.
“[Sanctions] do no good to the Chinese economy and finance, so they do no good to the global and US economies,” he added. “It will dampen the confidence of international market participants, and increase the systemic risks to the global economy, international markets, and particularly American financial markets.”
The US is just threatening to use sanctions that will also hurt itself
Many of the measures Washington could take would damage only Hong Kong and its own business interests, according to Louis Kuijs, the head of Asia research for Oxford Economics, but would not necessarily change the trajectory of China’s economic growth.