US sanctions on 39 Hong Kong, mainland Chinese officials will remain in place: Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that there will be no change to the remaining sanctions on 39 Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials in the “near future”, while acknowledging the issue came up in a meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Rubio, Washington’s top diplomat, also said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump had allowed a national emergency declaration on Hong Kong to expire last week after determining that the “circumstances had changed”, though he did not elaborate further. Asked by reporters at an Asean foreign ministers’ summit in Manila why Washington had eased sanctions on some officials and allowed the emergency order to expire, Rubio said: “There wasn’t an easing of sanctions.” He added: “The conditions underlying some of those elements no longer existed.” Trump issued Executive Order 13936 in July 2020, declaring a national emergency after Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong following months of anti-government protests. The declaration underpinned Washington’s decision to end Hong Kong’s preferential treatment in areas including trade and export controls. The emergency declaration was allowed to expire last week, although the US State Department quickly clarified that this did not mean Hong Kong’s special status had been restored. Explaining the reason for allowing the order to expire, Rubio said that Trump felt the “justification and rationale” for it had changed. “The circumstances had changed in the president’s judgment,” he said, without elaborating. He added that the matter was discussed “yesterday”, in an apparent reference to his meeting with Wang on Wednesday, during which the pair also discussed a planned trip to the US by President Xi Jinping and the Beijing-Manila dispute in the South China Sea. “There’s still a significant number of individuals in Hong Kong that remain sanctioned that were not covered by the executive order, and that remains in place,” Rubio said. “And obviously that was raised with us yesterday, but we don’t see a change any time in the near future on that.” Under the original executive order, the United States imposed six rounds of sanctions targeting 48 Hong Kong and mainland officials between 2020 and 2025. Following the expiry of the declaration, sanctions were removed on nine Hong Kong and mainland officials, including Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok, Dong Jingwei, director of Beijing’s Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, and two former police commissioners, Raymond Siu Chak-yee and Stephen Lo Wai-chung. The other 39 officials, including Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, his predecessor Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung, continue to face sanctions under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, legislation enacted in 2020 after the national security law came into force. Both China’s Ministry of Commerce and the Hong Kong government described Washington’s move last week as an “important step” towards implementing a consensus reached between Beijing and Washington. The US, when introducing the executive order, said the security law had eroded Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricted rights and freedoms promised to the city after its return to Chinese rule in 1997. Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have maintained that the legislation restored stability after the 2019 protests. Some political observers have described Washington’s move as a friendly gesture while others said the US might have kept the remaining 39 officials under sanctions to serve as “bargaining chips” in further negotiations. The move came just days after Trump accused China of interfering in American elections, an allegation that Beijing has sharply dismissed as a fabrication. Xi is expected to make a state visit to the US this autumn, his first in more than a decade. Trump has also said he planned to visit China again this year, with speculation centring on a trip for the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference in November to be held in Shenzhen.

US sanctions on 39 Hong Kong, mainland Chinese officials will remain in place: Rubio

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}President Donald Trump allowed emergency declaration to expire because ‘circumstances had changed’, US secretary of state says

President Donald Trump allowed emergency declaration to expire because ‘circumstances had changed’, US secretary of state says