China sanctioned former US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, chairwoman of the China-US Economic and Security Assessment Committee Carolyn Bartholomew, former chairman of the Congressional Executive Commission on China Jonathan Stivers, in response to sanctions imposed by Washington on seven Chinese citizens for “undermining the autonomy” of Hong Kong, a few days after the visit of the US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of China specified in a statement that the sanctions will also be applied to the director for China of the NGO Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson, DoYun Kim, of the National Democratic Institute for Foreign Affairs, the manager from programs of the American Republican Institute, Adam King, and the Hong Kong Democratic Council.

It is the first time that Beijing has issued this type of sanctions since the new law against foreign sanctions was approved in June and they were carried out two days before the visit of the American diplomat Wendy Sherman, who since this Sunday has been in the city of Tianjin (northeast of China) as part of a tour by the Asian continent.

The statement, released through the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, also explains that “the United States has concocted the so-called ‘Hong Kong business’ warning to unfoundedly attack Hong Kong’s business environment and has imposed sanctions of illegally to various officials of the Central Government Liaison Office in Hong Kong”.

Difficult bilateral relations

As it will be recalled, on July 16th, Washington warned US companies about the “emerging” risks of operating in Hong Kong and sanctioned seven Chinese officials for “undermining the autonomy” of that territory.

In the US government’s view, many of the challenges for companies stem from the National Security Law that Beijing imposed a year ago on Hong Kong to contain the anti-government protests that took to the streets in the second half of 2019 and undermine the city’s pro-democracy movement.

Since 2018, diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington began to deteriorate as a result of the trade war that the former US president started with China, which has spread to sectors such as technology, and the diplomatic. With Joe Biden’s Administration some contacts have been retaken, but  the atmosphere is still quite tense.

M. Rodríguez

Source: es.investing.com

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