US congressmen press on with sanctions calls for Hong Kong trade offices, after Article 23 bill moves to next stage

“Relatedly, we urge you to address the transnational repression experienced by Hongkongers on American soil and to consider stripping the diplomatic privileges and immunities from the three Hong Kong Economic Trade Organization (HKETO) offices operating in the United States.”

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The letter was signed by Republican Chris Smith, chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, his co-chair and Democratic senator Jeff Merkley, as well as Republican Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic ranking member of the house committee.

The commission made similar calls in May last year.

The head of a Hong Kong bills committee is expected to verbally deliver a report to the legislature’s House Committee on Friday, paving the way for the second reading of the legislation to resume and for lawmakers to deliberate before passing it at a full meeting of the Legislative Council.

In the letter, the congressmen accused the city’s three overseas trade offices of becoming “propaganda arms” of China, saying they would seek to pass the Transnational Repression Policy Act and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act to target the bureaus.

“HKETOs have become propaganda arms of the PRC [People’s Republic of China], obscuring the truth about increasing repression in Hong Kong, defending the permanent erosion of the rule of law, and spreading PRC misinformation,” they wrote.

Beijing and the Hong Kong government condemned the passing of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee last November.

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The Chinese foreign ministry commissioner’s office in Hong Kong “strongly condemned and resolutely opposed the act” at the time and urged the US to “step back from the edge of the cliff and stop pushing forward the relevant act”.

The proposed law would enable the US government to shut down Hong Kong’s overseas trade offices in the country and “remove the extension of certain privileges, exemptions and immunities” if it decided the city no longer had a high degree of autonomy.

The domestic national security law will target five new offences: treason; insurrection; theft of state secrets and espionage; sabotage endangering national security; and external interference.

The bill has been fast-tracked at Legco since it was gazetted and submitted to the legislature last Friday, when its first reading was also cleared in a special all-member session. The bills committee immediately began deliberations on the original 181 clauses as well as the amendments in more than 40 hours of meetings spanning seven days.

The legislation is mandated under Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, and will complement the 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law.

In August 2020, the White House slapped sanctions on 11 city and mainland Chinese officials, including former chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and then security minister John Lee, over what Washington claimed were their roles in “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy” through the national security law.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang, who was serving as police commissioner at the time, was also sanctioned by the US.

The US also imposed sanctions on 24 Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials following Beijing’s drastic overhaul of the city’s electoral system in 2021.