US announces sanctions on four Chinese nationals over Hong Kong
Xi Jinping and Hong Kong police and press
The United States on Monday said it was imposing sanctions on four more Chinese individuals for threatening the peace, security, and autonomy of Hong Kong.
The USTreasury websitenamed the individuals as Deng Zhonghua, Edwina Lau, Li Jiangzhou and Li Kwai-wah.
These individuals will be barred from travelling to the United States and their assets within the jurisdiction of the United States or in the possession or control of USpersons will be blocked.
Hong Kong Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said the sanctions were "absolutely unacceptable, a blatant - and I would use the word 'barbaric' - interference."
"We are not going to be intimidated," Cheung told reporters, speaking at a regular news conference held on Tuesday morning Hong Kong time.
Washington has called China's enactment of new national security law in Hong Kong this year an unacceptable breach of China's "one country, two systems" commitment.
The designations are the first sanctions imposed on China since Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in last week's USelection. Biden is due to take office on January20. Trump so far has refused to concede defeat.
In actions heralding a more authoritarian era for Hong Kong, China opened a new national security office in July, a week after imposing the new national security legislation to punish what it called crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.
Last month, the USState Department warned international financial institutions doing business with individuals deemed responsible for China's crackdown in Hong Kong that they could soon face tough sanctions.
Washington put sanctions on Carrie Lam, the territory's current and former police chiefs and other top officials in August for what it said was their role in curtailing freedoms in a crackdown on the territory's pro-democracy movement.
Relations between the United States and China, the world's two biggest economies, plunged to the lowest point in decades in the run-up to last week's USelection. The two sides are at odds on a wide range of issues including China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its treatment of Hong Kong.