China-US relations: Beijing threatens to deal ‘head-on’ blow after latest sanctions over Hong Kong
- Washington accused of making ‘unprovoked smears’ after it warns businesses of heightened risks of operating in the city
- Hong Kong liaison office says latest sanctions will do nothing ‘other than fuel our contempt and arouse our strong will to fight’
“The successive sanctions imposed on us by the US have no meaning, other than to fuel our contempt towards US politicians and to arouse our strong will to fight for our national interests,” it said.
“Anyone who intervenes in Hong Kong’s affairs had best believe that China’s development will firmly continue, and we will deal a head-on blow to America’s unscrupulous behaviour.”
Latest US sanctions on Hong Kong draw a collective shrug from analysts
The fiery language was echoed in a separate statement from the Chinese foreign ministry’s office in Hong Kong on Saturday. It dismissed the US business advisory as “nonsense”, and defended the national security law as a measure that could “push Hong Kong from chaos to governance”.
“The so-called US sanctions on Chinese officials cannot at all change the Chinese government’s lawful efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, safety and development interests and determination to ensure Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” it said. “Instead, it just further shows the Chinese people and the people of the world the ugly face of US hegemony and power politics.”
This follows earlier criticism from the office on Friday that the US was “extremely arrogant and unreasonable in its bullying”.
China’s foreign affairs ministry later said that the US should stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and China would take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty.
“China has firmly hit back at America’s so-called maximum pressure on China with strong countermeasures over the past years,” the ministry said. “If the US insists on continuing such tricks, China will play along every step of the way until the very end.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that the business advisory, along with sanctions against the seven officials, were a “clear message that the United States resolutely stands with Hongkongers”.
He accused Beijing of breaking its promise to allow Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy and “stifling the democratic aspirations” of people in the city by disqualifying elected lawmakers, arresting people for expressing discontent against the government and forcing the closure of the Apple Daily newspaper.
US sanctions on China to continue but Beijing ‘unlikely to escalate’
Ahead of the US sanctions announcement, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, warned that politicians in the US and Europe who “brutally trampled on international law and interfered in our internal affairs” would only arouse China’s anger and contempt.
“It will just sound the death knell of your agents in Hong Kong, those anti-China troublemakers in Hong Kong, and you will only be dropping a heavy rock on your own feet,” he said, according to a transcript released by his office.
Song Sio-chong, a professor at Shenzhen University’s Centre for the Basic Laws of Hong Kong and Macau, said Beijing was prepared for a total “face-off” with Western countries over Hong Kong.
02:03
US warns American companies about operating in Hong Kong, sanctions 7 Chinese officials
“Hong Kong is now one of the major issues in Sino-US relations where Beijing will not back down,” Song said. “It is still in the escalation stage, we will continue to see Washington and Beijing engaging in such sanctions and counter sanctions.”
Song said the US sanctions on mainland Chinese officials in Hong Kong would have “little effect”, since the officials had already been screened for their potential links and exposure to the US and other Western countries before being posted to the city. But Beijing might have to do more to “win over” the hearts of Hong Kong civil servants, since some may worry about being targeted with US sanctions in the future.
In addition to the latest sanctions on the seven deputy officials in Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, Washington sanctioned 14 senior officials over the political crackdown in Hong Kong last August, including the liaison office’s director Luo Huining, Xia Baolong and Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. Lam has said she no longer has a bank account and has been “using cash every day” as a result.
US sanctions 23 more Chinese firms over Xinjiang, military and business ties
In response, Beijing passed an anti-sanctions law in June, providing legal backing for its retaliatory measures against individuals and organisations responsible for imposing foreign sanctions.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said Beijing would be determined to retaliate.
“Beijing will have to respond strongly as the Hong Kong issue concerns its sovereignty and the success of its ‘one country, two systems’ policy,” he said. “As the US widens its sanction targets and warns its companies in Hong Kong about the anti-foreign sanctions law, it may become a self-fulfilling prophecy as Beijing has to punch back.”
