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US-China relations: Beijing condemns financial sanctions on Hong Kong
- America’s ‘actions to undermine financial stability in Hong Kong are not only against the Chinese people but also against the people of the world’, CBIRC says
- But watchdog offers little advice on how lenders in the city should deal with the new restrictions
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China’s banking and insurance regulator has declared the United States’ financial sanctions on Hong Kong organisations and officials accused of eroding the city’s autonomy as “lacking legality”.
In a statement published on its website, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), issued a stern challenge to Washington.
“Any US actions to undermine financial stability in Hong Kong are not only against the Chinese people but also against the people of the world, including the American people. We advise the US government not to act unilaterally to shoot itself in the foot,” it said.
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“The US has placed domestic laws above international laws and interfered in the normal business of financial institutions. It not only lacks legality but also violates the principles of the market economy.”
The CBIRC, whose chairman Guo Shuqing is also Communist Party secretary of the People’s Bank of China, said the US practice of using “long-arm jurisdiction” and “financial hegemony” to impose sanctions were not in line with “market economy principals”.
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The statement made no reference to possible retaliation, nor did it offer specific guidance on how Chinese banks in Hong Kong should deal with the sanctions.
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