White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said the U.S. government is likely to impose sanctions on China if Beijing passes the national security bill, giving itself more control over autonomous Hong Kong, CNBC reports.
According to O’Brien, the bill regulates a takeover of Hong Kong, and this will lead to the imposition of sanctions against China in accordance with the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019.
“It’s hard to see how Hong Kong could remain the Asian financial center that it’s become if China takes over. If all those things go away, I’m not sure how the financial community can stay there. They’re not going to stay in Hong Kong to be dominated by the People’s Republic of China, the communist party,” O’Brien said, adding that financial services initially came to Hong Kong because of the rule of law that protected free enterprise and the capitalist system.
Recall that the annual session of China’s parliament included on its agenda a draft law “On improving the legal system and law enforcement mechanism of Hong Kong,” which provides for responsibility for “rebellion, separatism and treason.”
The situation could escalate, as Beijing could theoretically simply go around Hong Kong’s elected legislators and impose its changes.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. Since 1997, when Britain regained sovereignty to Hong Kong, the region has maintained a one-country, two-system policy, which allowed it to gain certain freedoms that the rest of China does not have.
Proponents of democracy in Hong Kong consider this step another attempt by the Chinese Communist leadership to level out local freedoms.
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