Hong Kong ‘not obliged to enforce sanctions imposed by US alone’, says senior official on case of Huawei’s Sabrina Meng Wanzhou
- Commerce bureau says government will only act on sanctions ordered by UN Security Council
- Meng is on bail in Canada, accused of breaking Iran sanctions through Hong Kong shell company
Hong Kong is not obliged to enforce sanctions imposed by the United States, including in the case of Huawei executive Sabrina Meng Wanzhou’s alleged dealings with Iran through a local company, a senior official told legislators on Wednesday.
Vivian Sum Fong-kwang, deputy secretary of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, said the city government would only act on sanctions ordered by the UN Security Council, and would not enforce unilateral sanctions by individual jurisdictions, including the US or the European Union.
She was responding to lawmakers’ questions on whether Hong Kong needed to act on Meng’s alleged breach of the sanctions. The Huawei chief financial officer is accused of using a Hong Kong shell company to trade with Iran.
“Certain countries may out of their own consideration issue sanctions orders in addition to orders from the UN,” Sum told a Legislative Council panel scrutinising the incorporation of UN sanctions orders against Sudan, Yemen and Central African Republic into local laws.
“The Hong Kong government has no obligation or legal authority to enforce these individual sanctions orders.”
Meng was arrested on December 1 in Vancouver at the behest of the US, which accused her of violating the American sanctions by misrepresenting Huawei’s sales to an Iranian telecoms firm via a shell company in Hong Kong. The sale reportedly involved computers.