The United States has chosen not to extend its state of emergency for what it considers threats from Beijing’s hardline national security law in Hong Kong, US officials confirmed on Friday.
But it remains unclear whether Washington would restore preferential trade treatment for the financial center – a move that had accompanied the July 2020 emergency declaration.
China’s Ministry of Commerce praised the development, saying in a statement on Friday that Washington’s move was “an important step in implementing the consensus reached during economic and trade talks between the two sides.”
In 2020, during his first term in the White House, US President Donald Trump removed Hong Kong from preferential trade treatment due to Beijing’s oppression of the city.
Trump declared a national emergency at the time, with an order saying China’s actions to undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy contributed to an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security.
The order had been extended annually by the White House until now.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Friday that Washington recently confirmed to Beijing that the order would end.
But a State Department spokesman said that although Trump allowed the national emergency to end, his previous executive order “otherwise remains in effect.”
“Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify different treatment with respect to the PRC” under the US laws and provisions listed in the order, the spokesman added, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
A spokesman for the US Treasury Department noted that 39 of the 48 people affected by the emergency expiration still face sanctions under another act.
“The non-renewal is consistent with efforts to modernize sanctions,” the Treasury spokesman said, adding that officials sought to ensure that “sanctions are not duplicative.”
Hong Kong previously enjoyed a special economic status with the United States, receiving preferential treatment on issues such as export controls.
It had retained considerable autonomy since Britain handed over the territory to China in 1997.
But Beijing defied international warnings by imposing the security law, which criminalizes subversion and other acts in Hong Kong, causing a chill in the centre.
The crackdown came after the city saw massive and sometimes destructive pro-democracy protests.
A Hong Kong government spokesman said the city noted the “positive change” in US policy and looked forward to resuming “normal economic and trade exchanges” between the two sides.
