Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Wednesday that Hong Kong no longer has the autonomy and freedom that China’s communist government promised that it would tolerate when Great Britain gave the territory back to Beijing back in 1997.
In a statement coming days after Chinese leaders stunned Hong Kong by moving to impose a strict new national security law over the territory, Mr. Pompeo said the Trump administration is determined to call Beijing out over its increasing push to crush democracy there.
“While the United States once hoped that free and prosperous Hong Kong would provide a model for authoritarian China, it is now clear that China is modeling Hong Kong after itself,” Mr. Pompeo said. “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China.”
He made the statement in line with the Hong Kong Policy Act that Congress passed in 2019 requiring the secretary of state to present lawmakers on Capitol Hill with an annual assessment of Hong Kong’s autonomy.
“Hong Kong and its dynamic, enterprising, and free people have flourished for decades as a bastion of liberty, and this decision gives me no pleasure,” Mr. Pompeo said.
The comments come amid ongoing street protests in Hong Kong over the national security law that pro-democracy activists in the territory fear will allow Chinese authorities to jail them purely for exercising free speech.
The government in Beijing is expected to bristle at Mr. Pompeo’s declaration, which analysts say will likely further escalate tensions between the U.S. and China that have already mounted in recent months surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
