US Hong Kong companies wake up to “sad day” as Trump promises to cut economic ties

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Trump has said that China has broken its word about Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.

The Hong Kong US Chamber of Commerce said on Saturday that it was “a sad day” for the world financial center, hours after US President Donald Trump decided to strip the city of its special treatment in order to punish China.

In some of his hardest speeches to date, Trump said that Beijing had broken its word on Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy by proposing new national security legislation and that the territory no longer guaranteed economic privileges Americans.

“We will take steps to revoke preferential treatment for Hong Kong as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China,” said Trump, adding that Washington would also impose sanctions on those believed to be responsible for “suffocation” – the absolute suffocation – of freedom in Hong Kong. “

Trump told White House reporters that China’s move to Hong Kong was a tragedy for the world, but he gave no timetable for the moves, leaving Hong Kong residents, businesses and officials to reflect how far his administration will go.

“This is a moving time for Americans in Hong Kong and it will take time for businesses and families to digest the ramifications,” AmCham president Tara Joseph said in a statement.

“Many of us … have close ties to this city and to the people of Hong Kong. We love Hong Kong and it is a sad day,” she said, adding that the room would continue to work with its members to maintain Hong Kong’s status as a vital country. The Chinese parliament this week approved a decision to create laws for Hong Kong to fight sedition, secession, terrorism and foreign interference.

Mainland security and intelligence officials could be stationed in the city for the first time – actions by critics endanger the city’s vast freedoms. Authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong insist that the legislation will only target a small number of “troublemakers” who threaten China’s national security.

They say such action is urgently needed after months of sometimes violent anti-government protests that rocked the city last year. Protest movements are simmering again as Hong Kong comes out of its coronavirus stop.

Protesters are expected to take to the streets on Sunday.

Trump did not name targets for sanctions, but said the announcement “would affect all the agreements we have with Hong Kong”, including the U.S.-Hong Kong extradition treaty to export the controls on dual-use technologies and more “with a few exceptions”.

The Global Times of China, published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party in China, said that Trump’s decision was “recklessly arbitrary”. The Hong Kong government – which has a long history of working with its American counterparts, separate from Beijing – has yet to respond, although it warned Thursday that the move could be a double-edged sword. More than 1,300 American companies have offices in Hong Kong and provide approximately 100,000 jobs.

Over the past decade, the U.S. trade surplus with Hong Kong has been the largest of all its trading partners, totaling $ 297 billion from 2009 to 2018. Washington has also quietly worked with Hong Kong on counter efforts terrorism and money laundering, and with the United States. The emissaries have long appreciated Hong Kong’s distinct membership in certain large international economic organizations. “Hong Kong is an articulate champion of free markets and an effective champion of free markets and the reduction of trade barriers,” according to a fact sheet on the US consulate website.

Britain, meanwhile, stands ready to offer expanded visa rights and path to citizenship for nearly 3 million Hong Kong residents in response to pressure from China to impose national security legislation in the former British colony.

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