US Says Hong Kong Won’t Regain Special Status After Emergency Expires

The United States has allowed the “national emergency” related to Hong Kong to expire, a move that doesn’t restore the city’s special status, which President Donald Trump stripped away in 2020 during his first term.

In a July 17 statement, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that the president’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization has expired. 

Trump signed this executive order six years ago, declaring a national emergency in Hong Kong after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the former British colony.  

The executive order, subject to annual review, revoked a number of measures that treated Hong Kong as a separate entity from mainland China, such as exceptions to export controls and preferences for its passport holders. It also paved the way for sanctions against officials undermining the city’s autonomy.  

The Department of State suggested that the broader policy outlined in the executive order continue.

“The President has allowed the national emergency to end, but Executive Order 13936 otherwise remains in effect,” a State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

“Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment” in relation to mainland China, the spokesperson said.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control noted that the expiration of the national emergency authorization doesn’t affect a 2019 law that requires the U.S. secretary of State to assess annually whether Hong Kong is “sufficiently autonomous” from mainland China to merit special economic privileges. 

A separate Hong Kong Autonomy Act, signed into law by Trump in July 2020, which provides a legal framework for sanctioning officials and entities responsible for eroding freedoms in Hong Kong, will remain in effect, the agency stated. 

With these measures, the United States has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s current leader, John Lee; his predecessor, Carrie Lam; and other senior Hong Kong and Chinese officials. The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets these officials hold, and generally bar Americans from doing business with them.

A Treasury spokesperson explained that the president didn’t renew the emergency declaration because it had “significant overlap” with the 2020 act. The spokesperson noted that of the 48 individuals affected by the expiration, sanctions on 39 remain in place under the 2020 law. 

“The non-renewal is consistent with sanctions modernization efforts that streamline sanctions for greater efficiency and effectiveness, including by ensuring our sanctions are not duplicative,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a statement. 

“The Department of the Treasury will comply with all applicable laws and statutes.”

Hong Kong has taken a sharp authoritarian turn since Beijing enacted the security legislation in the city six years ago, with prominent politicians and activists now either in self-exile or in jail. Jimmy Lai, a 78-year-old pro-democracy publisher, received a 20-year jail term in February, the harshest sentence ever under the security law. 

The penalty has sparked fresh concerns about Beijing’s assault on the city’s dwindling freedoms of speech and press that it promised to keep untouched for half a century when it took over the city from the British in 1997. 

Concerns

Hong Kong Watch, a nonprofit advocating for the Asian financial hub’s human rights and freedom, called on the Trump administration to reverse the decision, saying the repression in Hong Kong has only deepened since the United States declared a national emergency. 

Frances Hui, a Hong Kong activist wanted by the city’s government over her pro-democracy activities, noted that just earlier this week, Hong Kong’s national police raided two independent bookstores and arrested five people suspected of selling seditious publications. 

“The crackdown on free speech is still escalating,” she said on X on July 17. “Rolling back pressure on Hong Kong is a wrong signal to send.”

Asked about these concerns, a State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times the United States will continue to call for the restoration of Hong Kong’s autonomy and the release of “all political prisoners unjustly detained for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

“We continue to hold individuals accountable for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy, including by implementing sanctions under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.”