In response to Donald Trump signing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, China has banned the United States (U.S.) warships and military aircrafts from making stops at Hong Kong
The People’s Republic of China has banned the United States (U.S.) warships and military aircrafts from making stops at Hong Kong, in response to the President of U.S. – Donald Trump signing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act (HKHRDA).
The HKHRDA refers to a U.S. Federal Law that allows U.S. to impose sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights abuses in Hong Kong. It also requires the U.S. Department of State and other agencies to conduct an annual review to determine whether changes in Hong Kong’s political status (its relationship with mainland China) justify changing the unique, favourable trade relations between the U.S. and Hong Kong.
In addition, Trump had also signed into law the ‘Protect Hong Kong Act’ which prohibits the sale of U.S. made munitions such as tear gas and rubber bullets to law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong.
Speaking on the occasion, the Director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of China – Hua Chunying said, “In response to the unreasonable behaviors of the US side, the Chinese government decides to suspend the review of requests by US military ships and aircraft to visit Hong Kong as of today.”
She also announced that Beijing would impose sanctions on several U.S. non-governmental human rights organizations such as Human Rights, National Endowment for Democracy, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, International Republican Institute and Freedom House, for monitoring and reporting on the protests in Hong Kong.
Talking about the NGOs, Hua said, “China decides to sanction on the organizations that behave badly during the Hong Kong extradition-bill unrest, including National Endowment for Democracy, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, International Republican Institute, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House.”
She further added, “There is a lot of evidence proving that these NGOs have supported anti-China forces to create chaos in Hong Kong and encouraged them to engage in extreme violent criminal acts and ‘Hong Kong independence’ separatist activities. They have a large responsibility for the chaos in Hong Kong and deserve to be sanctioned and pay the price.”
China called on the U.S. to stop interfering in the Hong Kong affairs and also clarified that Beijing could take further action to protect its national sovereignty and security. China had earlier announced to respond with strong countermeasures against the U.S.
Just over a year ago, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and ships in its strike group carried some 7,000 personnel into Hong Kong. This was seen as an attempt to ease off tensions between China and U.S. Since the Reagan visit, the amphibious command ship USS Blue Ridge, the flagship of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, and the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf have made notable stops in Hong Kong.
The move comes as China and U.S. are close to signing the Phase-1 of the ongoing trade deal between them. The U.S. is set to impose a tariff of 15% on fresh set of Chinese goods worth U.S. $ 156 billion on December 15, 2019. If the U.S. goes ahead with it, China will also retaliate with another round of tariffs on U.S. goods worth U.S. 75 billion.
