Trump announces unprecedented measures against China: Hong Kong loses special status

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Pompeo: Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China 0:22

(CNN) - United States President Donald Trump launched a forceful attack on China on Friday, accusing misdeeds ranging from espionage to the violation of Hong Kong's freedoms, and announced a series of retaliatory measures that will sink relations between The United States and China even more in crisis.

"They have swindled the United States like no one else has before," Trump said of China, denouncing the way that Beijing "raided our factories" and "gutted" the American industry, describing Beijing as the central point with which will compete in the remaining months of his reelection campaign.

Trump appeared in the Rose Garden of the White House at the end of a week when the United States reached 100,000 deaths in the coronavirus pandemic and when mass protests rocked Minneapolis after the death of a black man in police custody, but he did not mention any of them, focusing instead on considering Beijing an existential geopolitical threat.

Trump criticized China for "espionage to steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many," announced measures to protect US investors from Chinese financial practices, accused Beijing of "illegally claiming territory in the Pacific Ocean" and threatened the freedom of navigation.

The president also criticized Beijing for passing a national security law that fundamentally undermines Hong Kong's autonomy, and announced that in the future, the United States will treat Hong Kong the same way it treats the rest of China. Trump said the United States will strip Hong Kong of the special policy measures on extradition, trade, travel and customs that Washington had previously granted it.

Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the World Health Organization, even at a time when the global coronavirus pandemic continues to take lives, claiming that China has "full control" over the WHO, an organization of 194 member states.

The president said the United States would also take action on other fronts, including banning "certain foreign citizens of China" from entering the United States and sanctioning officials in China and Hong Kong for their direct or indirect role in "stifling" the Hong Kong freedoms.

"Relations between the United States and China are in crisis," said Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security. “We have hit the bottom and are still falling through it. Beijing will retaliate in response to Hong Kong steps taken by the administration, and then the ball will return to the president's court. Things will get worse - potentially much worse - before they get better. ”

Growing confrontation

Trump's announcement was a multi-party salvo in what has been a steadily escalating confrontation that is now unfolding over trade, telecommunications, the media, student visas, the South China Sea, the coronavirus, and more recently, the issue of Hong Kong's autonomy.

The Cantonese-speaking enclave was handed over by the United Kingdom to China in 1997 under an agreement aimed at preserving Hong Kong's autonomy in internal affairs, including the judiciary, and ensuring that its citizens can vote for its leaders.

"This week, China unilaterally imposed control over Hong Kong's security," Trump said Friday, calling it "a simple violation of the obligations of the Beijing treaty with the United Kingdom."

• Pompeo says Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, jeopardizing billions of dollars of business activities

As a result, Trump said that Hong Kong "is no longer autonomous enough to warrant the special treatment we have accorded to the territory" and that his administration "will begin the process of eliminating policy exemptions that give Hong Kong different treatment and special".

Management will impact the "full range" of agreements the United States has with Hong Kong, including its extradition treaty, export controls on dual-use technologies and more, Trump said. The United States will also revoke Hong Kong's preferential customs and travel status, the president said.

Chad Bown, a member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said revoking Hong Kong's special status and extending tariffs to the enclave "would have little immediate impact," since in 2019 the United States imported less than $ 5 billion of goods from Hong Kong that Trump could hit with new tariffs.

China probably counterattack

In comparison, the United States imported $ 452 billion worth of goods from China in 2019. However, Bown noted that Beijing could strike back in a way that would harm American companies.

"Ironically, it would be more shocking to trade if China responded with an escalation and a forced takeover of Hong Kong's trade policy," said Bown. "If Beijing could somehow extend its retaliatory tariffs, that would have a greater impact, as the United States exports more than $ 30 billion a year to Hong Kong."

Trump also said the State Department's travel notice for Hong Kong will be revised "to reflect the increased danger of surveillance and punishment by the Chinese state security apparatus."

"The president's response to Hong Kong is bold and, I think, appropriate," said Fontaine of CNAS. "Beijing's decision to end Hong Kong's separate political system should trigger a US response, including by ending Hong Kong's special economic situation. The administration has criticized and questioned issues of democracy and human rights abroad, and I am pleased that it is addressing it. ”

Trump was widely expected to announce a restriction on Chinese students, of whom some 350,000 come to the United States to study each year, and senior cabinet officials noted that limits on their entry would be just one of several measures the president would do. .

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday that Trump would make "a series of announcements" about China "in the coming days" and suggested that visa restrictions for Chinese graduate students and researchers could be among them. .

Hong Kong