The Hong Kong government expressed its “outrage” over a US decision to impose sanctions on six city and Chinese officials, calling the movement “insane, shameless and despicable”.
The US is trying to “intervene” in the internal affairs of China and Hong Kong and “hinder” their efforts to ensure national security, the city government said in a statement. statement on Saturday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday that the US would sanction the officials as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order on Hong Kong normalization.
The move is the latest in a series of measures the White House has taken to punish China after Beijing imposed national security laws in Hong Kong last year. The law has cast doubt on whether the former colony can still have the “high degree of autonomy” promised before the British returned it to China in 1997. officials, including Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
“The US acts show double standards and hypocrisy, let alone a blatant violation of international laws and basic standards of international relations,” the Hong Kong government said in the statement. The excuse the US used to punish the officials was “weak” and “could barely hold up until challenge, ”it added.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong condemned the sanctions in a statement on Saturday, stating that some Western politicians “misrepresent” and embellish those suspected of violating National Security Law as “pro-democracy politicians and activists”.
(Updates with comments from the State Department in the last paragraph)