China sanctions US lawmakers, officials over Hong Kong, Taiwan moves
- Beijing says it will target American personnel in response to Washington’s bans triggered by mass arrests in Hong Kong
- US efforts to forge stronger links with Taiwan will also be met with retaliatory action, Chinese foreign ministry says
China has announced sanctions on US officials and lawmakers in response to similar US action last week over the political crackdown in Hong Kong and Washington’s efforts to forge links with Taiwan.
Without naming the targeted individuals, Hua said Beijing would impose reciprocal sanctions on US officials, lawmakers and non-profit staff who were “primarily responsible for the vile actions on Hong Kong” and their family members.
“The US must immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs and immediately stop using various pretences to interfere in China’s internal affairs, endangering China’s national security,” she said, adding the US was going along a path of “error and danger”.
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Outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called on mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials to “immediately release” individuals who had been targeted under the national security law and said that the US would “continue to use all tools at our disposal to hold those responsible to account”.
The action followed sanctions in August against Hong Kong officials seen as undermining the city’s autonomy and freedom, including against the city’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who said that as a result, she no longer had a bank account.
Pompeo had said the US would remove self-imposed restrictions on contact between US diplomats, service members and other officials’ interactions with Taiwan so that the relationship would no longer be “shackled”.
Hua said on Monday that Beijing would also impose sanctions on unspecified US officials who had “acted maliciously” on the Taiwan issue.
Under outgoing President Donald Trump, the US has strengthened ties with Taiwan, including through arms sales and official visits, despite protests from Beijing that it has sovereignty over the democratic island.
In a online meeting on Thursday, US ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen that the US would always stand with Taiwan.
Craft, who was spotted entering the UN General Assembly Hall with a toy Formosan black bear – a species endemic to Taiwan – in her bag, also spoke to Taiwanese students via video link from the United Nations to underline US support for “a role for Taiwan on the global stage”.
