Trump aides rule out ending Hong Kong dollar peg to punish China for security law

Name: What is the Hong Kong Dollar Peg?
Uploaded: 2020-07-13T22:44:57.000Z
Duration: 1 min 43 s
Description: What is the Hong Kong Dollar Peg?

Idea dropped as some feared move would be difficult to implement and could end up hurting US

Washington and Beijing continue to trade blows over South China Sea, coronavirus pandemic and human rights in Xinjiang

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What is the Hong Kong Dollar Peg?

Bloomberg

Published: 6:44am, 14 Jul 2020Updated: 11:27am, 14 Jul 2020

Top advisers to US President Donald Trump have ruled out undermining the Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the US currency as they seek to punish China for infringing on the city’s political freedoms, according to people familiar with the matter.

Aides at the White House and State department had weighed the possibility of limiting Hong Kong banks’ access to US dollars as a way of striking back at Beijing, Bloomberg News reported last week.

But they dropped the idea after advocates could not gather enough support, with those against the move concerned that it would be difficult to implement and could end up hurting the US, according to one of the people.

Tensions between the US and China have flared over issues ranging from the competition for military supremacy in the South China Sea to the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Early on Monday, Beijing announced sanctions against US Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz – a largely symbolic move after the US sanctioned a top member of China’s ruling Communist Party and three other officials over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of inappropriately interfering in China’s internal affairs.

“The president is not in a good mood about China,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Monday in a Fox News interview.