US sets to cease exportation of defense equipment to Hong Kong
The United States has announced plan to cease exportation of defense equipment to Hong Kong as mainland China tightens its grip on the city.
While announcing this on Tuesday June 30, 2020, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, stated that the US was being forced “to re-evaluate its policies toward the territory.”
The nation’s top diplomat further stated that the US would “take steps toward imposing the same restrictions on U.S. defense and dual-use technologies to Hong Kong as it does for China.”
In a bid to defend the move as a way to protect U.S. national security, Pompeo added that the US "could no longer distinguish between the export of controlled items to Hong Kong or to mainland China."
“We cannot risk these items falling into the hands of the People’s Liberation Army, whose primary purpose is to uphold the dictatorship of the CCP by any means necessary,” Pompeo said in a statement.
The law has been slammed by many as the Chinese Communist Party’s boldest effort to date to crackdown on the territory, which has maintained a semi-autonomous system separate from that of mainland China.
President Donald Trump promised to punish the CCP officials responsible for eviscerating Hong Kong’s freedoms.
Today, we are taking action to do just that– we’ve announced visa restrictions on CCP officials responsible for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and human rights,” Pompeo tweeted at the time.
China offered a tit-for-tat response, imposing their own visa ban on Americans who interfered with matters relating to Hong Kong.
“As a response to the US’s wrongful decision to impose visa bans on Chinese officials, China decides to impose visa bans on Americans who behave badly in Hong Kong affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Monday.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s threats to restrict visas for U.S. citizens is the latest example of Beijing’s refusal to accept responsibility for breaking its commitment to the people of Hong Kong. We will not be deterred from taking action to respond,” the Secretary of State posted.