United States unlikely to impose sanctions on Hong Kong, cabinet advisers say after visit
- Team of key politicians doubt penalties coming in report to Congress later this month
- Opinion comes after rare meeting with American officials in California centred around US law aimed at protecting rights in the city
The United States is unlikely to impose sanctions on Hong Kong under a bill the Trump administration signed into law last year covering human rights in the Asian financial hub, a group of advisers to the city’s leader said after meeting American officials.
The visit by the seven-member delegation, which included opposition figures, was the first since US President Donald Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act amid violent anti-government protests that erupted last summer.
Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, chairwoman of the pro-establishment New People’s Party, said US penalties on the city would be detrimental to Washington’s objectives.
“They understand that if sanctions are imposed against officials, US interests will eventually be affected if there are countermeasures against them,” she said, calling on Washington to respect Beijing’s authority over Hong Kong.
That 1992 act allowed for the city to be treated differently from mainland China in terms of trade, diplomacy and politics following the 1997 handover.
But last year, amid the escalating violence, widespread expressions of anger against Beijing and calls for American intervention in the city’s affairs, both the US House of Representatives and the Senate unanimously passed the rights bill, which Trump signed into law in November. It paves the way for Washington to take diplomatic action and economic sanctions against the city’s government, and requires the US government to regularly assess Hong Kong’s autonomy to preserve its special trading status under the 1992 law.