The nationwide flags of the U.S. and China waving outdoors a constructing.
Teh Eng Koon | AFP through Getty Pictures
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration on Friday warned companies with operations in Hong Kong of sweeping monetary and regulatory dangers as China continues to limit political and financial freedoms within the territory.
The nine-page Hong Kong Business Advisory – revealed collectively by the departments of State, Treasury, Commerce and Homeland Safety – warns that U.S. companies are encountering numerous dangers posed by China’s nationwide safety regulation in Hong Kong.
The advisory states that “companies face dangers related to digital surveillance with out warrants and the give up of information to authorities” in addition to “restricted entry to data.”
“Beijing has chipped away at Hong Kong’s popularity of accountable, clear governance and respect for particular person freedoms, and has damaged its promise to depart Hong Kong’s excessive diploma of autonomy unchanged for 50 years,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in a press release.
“Within the face of Beijing’s selections over the previous 12 months that have stifled the democratic aspirations of individuals in Hong Kong, we’re taking motion. Right this moment we ship a transparent message that the US resolutely stands with Hong Kongers,” the nation’s high diplomat added.
The Biden administration additionally imposed U.S. sanctions on seven Chinese language officers for violating Hong Kong’s autonomy.
The Chinese language Embassy in Washington did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
Earlier within the week, the Biden administration issued a warning to companies with funding ties to China’s Xinjiang province, citing rising proof of genocide and different human rights abuses within the nation’s northwest area.
Washington has brazenly criticized Beijing’s sweeping nationwide safety regulation handed in June 2020 geared toward limiting Hong Kong’s autonomy and banning literature crucial of the Chinese language Communist Occasion.
Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the measure as an “Orwellian move” and an assault “on the rights and freedoms of the folks of Hong Kong.”
Former President Donald Trump signed laws shortly thereafter to impose sanctions on China in response to its interference with Hong Kong’s autonomy. He additionally signed an government order ending the preferential therapy that Hong Kong has lengthy loved.
“Hong Kong will now be handled the identical as mainland China,” Trump mentioned throughout a speech in July 2020 from the White Home Rose Backyard.
“No particular privileges, no particular financial therapy and no export of delicate applied sciences,” Trump mentioned. “Along with that, as you understand, we’re inserting large tariffs and have positioned very giant tariffs on China.”
China’s Overseas Ministry fired again saying Beijing will impose retaliatory sanctions towards U.S. people and entities.