China sanctions 11 US officials over HK affairs

China on Monday announced sanctions against 11 US officials with egregious records on Hong Kong affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during his briefing with the media.

Zhao made the remarks in response to a request for comment on the sanctions by the US government against 11 officials of the Chinese central government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

Among those targeted were senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and Pat Toomey and representative Chris Smith.

“In response to that wrong US behavior, China has decided to impose sanctions on individuals who have behaved egregiously on Hong Kong-related issues,” Zhao Lijian told reporters.

He did not specify what the sanctions entail.

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam as well as the city’s current and former police chiefs, under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. Washington accused the officials of “suppressing freedom and democratic processes” in Hong Kong.

Those sanctions freeze any US assets owned by those people and generally bar Americans from doing business with them.

Beijing said the measure was a violation of international law and “grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs.”

Last month, China announced sanctions against Cruz, Rubio, Smith and other US officials after the United States penalized senior Chinese officials over Xinjiang-related issues.

China’s latest measure includes sanctions against the heads of five US-based, non-government organizations — the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch.

All five groups had been subjected to sanctions in December in connection with their positions on Hong Kong.

A spokesman for the HKSAR government said on Monday that the Hong Kong government fully supports the central government’s counter-measure against the United States and will facilitate its enforcement.

“In recent months, the United States passed laws and pronounced an executive order targeting the HKSAR under the pretext of human rights, democracy and autonomy, blatantly deviating from international laws and basic norms governing international relations and ignoring the rampant violence in the HKSAR in the past year.

“It also smeared the national security law (in Hong Kong) which was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and applied in Hong Kong by promulgation, displaying in full its double standards and hypocrisy and seriously damaging our bilateral relations,” the spokesman said.

The Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong also voiced strong support for the countermeasure.

A spokesperson of the office stressed that no concessions will be made on major issues concerning China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, adding that the so-called sanctions against some Chinese officials by the US Treasury Department are full of absurdity.

“The false claim that ‘the United States stands with the people of Hong Kong’ is a huge lie and joke,” the spokesperson said. “The way out for Hong Kong lies in the correct implementation of ‘one country, two systems.’ Hong Kong’s future lies in being with its strong motherland.”